


Red (And Blue) Like Roses Volume 1

by Honor_and_glory_to_the_empire



Series: Red (And Blue) Like Roses [1]
Category: RWBY, Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, some characters are not tagged for plot reasons, wash sarge and caboose are stuck in ruby's head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:34:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23220295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honor_and_glory_to_the_empire/pseuds/Honor_and_glory_to_the_empire
Summary: Many people had imaginary friends growing up, it just so happened that ruby's were a tad more.......colorful than most.Aka sarge, caboose and wash are trapped in the mind of a fifteen year old. From a different universe. Filled with monsters, magic and dust. Send help.
Series: Red (And Blue) Like Roses [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722166
Comments: 56
Kudos: 99





	1. Prologue

Ruby Rose was 12 years old when she started hearing voices. To many this would be a sign of a serious mental disorder like schizophrenia or something equally as bad for a developing young mind. But ruby was never really concerned with the voices as the also took the (strange) appearance of colourful marines in armour. They never really interacted with the world and were akin to ghosts in how they acted, (an observation that amused two of them and infuriated another to no end, especially when referencing 'Church').

The origins of the voices themselves was a subject of great debate among the three of them, with theories ranging from magic to a freak teleporter accident. But as far as Ruby was concerned they came into existence when she passed out at her mothers grave. It was a calm night at Summer Rose's grave, Ruby had come to visit after a particularly bad day involving an (literal) exploding oven, a (metaphorical) exploding dad and a (literal) exploding yang. She couldn't remember exactly what happened to start the argument, all she knew was that she needed to get out of the house now. So to summer's grave she went, the night had passed quietly but when she woke up they were there.

"Uggghhhh" Someone said near her, as she was waking up.

"Where are we?" A gruff, unknown, voice called out. The sound of a stranger was enough to snap ruby from her dazed, half a sleep state as she jumped up, prepared to open Crescent Rose only to find......soldiers?

She blinked twice as she watched three soldiers, one in blue, another in red and the third in grey with yellow, all get up and look at their surroundings. "This....isn't Chorus." The grey one said, seemingly evaluating his surroundings.

At this the blue one said "No, it's a forest agent Washingtub!" In a very chipper and matter of fact tone.

"How do we know this isn't Chorus?" The red one demanded, causing Washingtub(?) To say, "Well for one I am getting _no_ signal and as I recall, _Chorus_ doesn't have a shattered moon." He finished by gesturing to said moon which was oddly still in the sky with the sun.

"Fair point blue." Red said, which confused Ruby, the other man wasn't blue, he was grey. Unless he was talking about the other soldier? But he didn't say anything. It was at this point the blue soldier said "Oh! Why don't we ask her?" Causing the other two soldiers to turn around to face ruby.

Hoping to make this less awkward she waved, "Hi?"

Red and Washingtub (a strange name) seemed to be confused at her mere presence while blue was a lot more friendly, "Hello!" He waved back "My name is Caboose! Who are you?" He said loudly.

"R-Ruby, Ruby Rose." She stammered out, caught off guard by his loud and friendly tone.

"Nice to meet you ruby! We can be best friends!" This loud declaration was enough to kick the other two out of their stupor, the grey one called out "No Caboose!"

Before turning to ruby herself "Nice to meet you Miss Rose, i'm agent Washington."

"Sarge" The red trooper grunted out "Mind telling us where we are, lil lady?"

Nervously Ruby said "P-patch, near my house." This was met by three silent looks, of what she could only describe as confusion as Washington, (not tub) sought to clarify. "Uh...what? Where?" "Patch" More blank stares "in vale" They didn't stop "It's a continent in Remnant." Sarge step forward "Y-your making that up." He accused.

Thus began one of the most nonsensical arguments of her life as she tried to convince the three that they were on Remnant and not some far away planet called Chorus. Oddly enough Caboose had no trouble accepting her arguments as he told her "Makes sense, the grass feels strange." She didn't point out he had armoured boots on.

Washington and Sarge however seemed to question even the most basic concepts of how the world worked "Dust? Whats dust?" And, "What is Sam hell are Grimm?" Being the most difficult to answer. "Dust." Ruby scrambled for words "Is....dust." Yeah, she was unable to answer this basic question, so what? Everyone knew what dust was.

She moved on "A grim is a monster attracted by negative emotion." Sarge leaned forward "Can they be weaponized?" He asked curiously. "No." Was the firm answer.

"Ruby!" Caboose called out "do 'Grimm' look like that?" He asked as he pointed out a Beowulf that sunk up from the forest. Leaping up from where she sat crossed legged on the ground, she rolled over to the compact Crescent Rose- only for Yang to come out of no where and punch the Grimm away.

"Ruby!" Yelled Yang as she went to hug her baby sister. Washington asked "whose this?"

Pulling herself free from Yang's death-bear hug, Ruby made the introductions. "Guys this is Yang my sister, yang these guys are sarge, Washington and caboose" She informed pointing to each trooper as she said their name.

But rather than greet the trio, Yang instead looked at Ruby weirdly. Super weirdly. "Ruby." Yang asked full of concern. "Are you feeling well?"

Ruby waved off concerns. "I'm fine yang, but why aren't you greeting the guys?" Caboose nodded in agreement "Yeah that's really rude!"

Yang knelt to her sisters level and placed her hand on ruby's forehead. "Ruby.....no ones there." She broke the news to her sister gently which caused a great deal of indignant protests from Sarge and Caboose, with Washington tilting his helmet in a troubled manner. Ruby looked shocked "w-what, b-but they are right there!" She protested, it's not like they were ghosts right?

  
The following walk back to the house and argument with dad proved more frustrating for ruby and concerning for Yang and Taiyang, as little red kept referring to people who didn't exist. Soon she was sent up to her room for 'bed rest' which frustrated Ruby even more. She. Was. Not. Crazy!

During the whole affair caboose and sarge had been far from quiet with caboose making increasingly silly suggestions and sarge increasingly violent threats, but wash, wash was silent.

"What do you think wash?" Ruby asked while she lied on her bed, sending Caboose and Sarge quiet as they looked at Washington for his opinion. Washington was silent in his corner of the room for a moment before giving his two cents " I think that we are..." He hesitated, " I think we're no longer in our world, and I think that we're stuck in your head." He finished. The four occupants went silent as they considered what Wash said.

Sarge broke the silence "so...what now lil miss?" Ruby was taken back "Your...asking me?", "Of course! It's you head after all." Sarge told her.

Ruby contemplated the situation for a moment on one hand no one else could see the three space marines, so there was a (small) chance she was loosing her mind, but on the other wash's theory made sense and they seemed friendly enough, plus yang always did tell her she needed some friends outside of her.... She made up her mind. "Alright" ruby all but whispered "we'll pretend that i didn't see anything and that this was, a caused by sleeping in the cold." The others nodded that seemed fair. "Then we can hang out and find away for you guy's to get home." Wash nodded "that sounds reasonable." The other two agreed. This was the start of a beautiful friendship.

\----‐---------------------------‐------------------------------------------------------‐-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
And so the friendship between ruby and the colourful trio began.

There was some trail and error at the start (figuring out how to effectively communicate without seeming crazy) and some awkwardness (they had to wait outside while Ruby got changed or used the bathroom), but ultimately Ruby benefited from this partnership getting (terrible) combat advice and (great) mechanical advice from Sarge, a true friend in Caboose and some amazing strategies and combat advice from agent Washington.

This was a friendship that went great......until she was robbed while shopping at dust till dawn.


	2. From Dust Till Dawn

It was Yang that bought Ruby to Vale.

Okay, that was a simplification.

It was actually Yang going to beacon academy tomorrow that bought Ruby to Vale. Dad was busy with paperwork for Signal, so she and Yang had been given money and told to 'celebrate'. Naturally this meant that Yang ditched her to go to some 'cool' club that Ruby couldn't go to.

And so Ruby went to a local dust shop.

Alone.

Well....not exactly alone.

"Ruby. Oh! Ruby!" Called out a _far_ too enthusiastic voice.

Giving a full body sigh Ruby said "Yes, caboose?"

"Can we get this blue dust for nice Church?" Ruby gingerly looked at the cobalt, electric dust which was, surprisingly expensive for some reason.

"Maybe later Caboose" She told him gently, the notion of her dad being 'Nice Church' being a sore subject between caboose and the rest of the group as while Taiyang did sound like Church; the syntax, means of expression and tone where all different. As such Caboose took to calling her dad 'Nice Church'.

Caboose nodded and went back to his browsing, allowing Ruby to go back to her own browsing of the magazine section of the shop.

She looked at the titles, ' _V_ _ale weapons weekly_ ', ' _Mechs today_ ' and ' _shotguns today_ '. speaking of shotguns....

"I'm telling you with the power of my mighty shotgun-" Washington's voice climbed another octave as he cut sarge off "And i'm telling you Grimm. Cannot. Be. Weaponized! Not even using a shotgun!"

Ruby sighed, that particular argument had been going in circles for hour now even sense she read an article about Grimm in capture, which had Sarge remark about how if he had a shotgun he could easily control a Grimm and set it on the blues, which caused Washington to disagree. Leading to now.

Tired of the the argument she pulled out her headphones, set them on her head and pulled up her hood.

She pulled out her scroll and hit shuffle. Loud music filtered through her ears as she recognised the beat, it was on of her favourites. _"Faaaaallling toward the skyyyyyy, waiting for myyyy ride_."

Her head moved with the beat as she continued to browse the magazines. Ohhhhhh the latest issue of _'huntresses and hunters legends'_ had just came out!

She reached over to take it off the rack she felt a tapping on her shoulder. Turning around she saw a well dressed man in a suit with Sarge and Wash standing behind him. She paused the song and took off her headphones. "Yes?" She asked eloquently.

"I said, put your hands in the air, now!" The bargain bin criminal demanded. 

Ruby looked at her invisible friends for clarification "Is he....robbing me?"

"unfortunately" came wash's reply, which contrasted with sarge's "yeah, sic-em!" ruby nodded "Ooohhh..." 

Using her semblance, she moved faster than the robber could react and punched and pushed him through the shop window, sending them both outside. The other men that were robbing the store looked outside as Ruby got up and unfolded Crescent Rose into its scythe form.

The guy in the white suit scowled, but Ruby smiled back at him before twirling her weapon around, striking it into the ground, daring them to attack. The (what she presumed was) leader seemed confused by her. "Okayyy..." He gestured to his remaining henchmen.

"Get her!"

The henchmen headed out of the shop and ran at Ruby, who spun around on top of her scythe and kicked the first approaching criminal in the face. She pulled Crescent Rose out of the ground and fired it off to hit another of the henchmen with the butt of her weapon, sending him flying. She fired again and brought the side down on one attacker and dodged the next's gunfire with her rifle's speed, getting close enough to knock him into the air and followed him upwards so she could beat him towards the bad guy's feet.

Mister bad guy sighed "You were worth every cent. Truly, you were." Dropping his cigar and crushing it with his cane he looked directly at Ruby "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around..."

He raised his cane and opened the bottom to reveal a rifle with a cross grid "...I'm afraid this is where we part ways."

* * *

"Of course his cane had to be gun as well." Wash sighed as he reflected.

It seemed like every other thing on this planet was some form of gun.

Sarge however seemed thoughtful "Well seems to me like that should be the natural order of things, why shouldn't everything be a gun?"

Caboose nodded along "like freckles!" The peanut gallery was interrupted by the crime lord who unleashed a red blast at Ruby, who though fast and fired at the ground leaping over it. When she landed and looked up, crime dude wasn't there.

"Over there" Pointed Wash to the criminal, who was climbing up a ladder on a nearby building.

Ruby looked to the onlooking shopkeeper "You okay if I go after him?" The shopkeeper gave a short "Uh huh." And Ruby set off.

Leaving behind the three space marines. "Lets get moving." Sighed Wash, as Ruby used Crescent Rose to jump to the top of the building.

"You know.." Observed Sarge, "She could be more thoughtful for us"

Caboose nodded in agreement " Yeah we I need cookies!"

"Not what I mean Caboose." The trio climbed the ladder awkwardly in their power armour. Only to see a large explosion _._

The evil dude was laughing "Whoa-ho-ho-ho!" But stopped laughing when he saw something new on the roof "Huh?"

A woman in a purple cape landed in front of Ruby, casting a circle of protection over them with her wand. As Ruby looked on, the trio ran up to ruby

"Are you fine lil lady?" Asked Sarge, "Fine" Ruby mumbled "Aura protected me, and I am NOT little." This caused Sarge to chuckle. "Whatever you say red." Wash however had more concerning matters to deal with.

A new person had entered the fray, an (admittedly attractive) woman was on the airship. Her hand was on fire. It was times like this that he was glad Tucker wasn't here.

The woman reached back and her arms and chest light up like fire, aiming and throwing a burst of energy at this huntress. The Huntress blocked it, but the flame splattered behind her and glowed hot with the enemy's raised hand. the mystery huntress back-flipped out of the explosion, which destroyed part of the roof, and magically gathered the shards to create a large arrow, which she threw at the craft. dear lord, wash always knew remnant was insane, but this took the cake. The fiery woman shattered the arrow with several blasts, but it reformed just in time to hit the side of the jet due to the pilots quick aerial lean. The wreckage separated and reshaped into more arrows that encircled the jet, but the fiery woman summoned several glowing rings around herself that expanded and destroyed the shards.

This was enough for Ruby to be torn from her conversation finally acting, she reverted her scythe into its rifle form to fire at the woman, who blocked all of the actually pretty accurate shots (suck it church) and created several blazing circles around her two opponents. The huntress telekinetically pushed Ruby and rolled herself out of the explosion's radius.

Wash wished he could do more than look to up to see the hatch close and the craft fly away.

Ruby pushed herself off the ground and knew the only correct thing to say. "You're a Huntress!" Her face became a pleading, awe-stricken face one.

"Can I have your autograph?!"

* * *

-in A police station interrogation room-

After nearly 3 years of military service , 6 years of work at freelancer, another 7 in the company of the reds and blues and the spending the last 3 in the mind of a 15 year old girl, very little could surprise agent Washington. That being said _some_ things could scare him. like Glynda Goodwitch, who sounded scarily similar, to Tex.

An angry Tex.

"I hope that you realise that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, young lady. You put yourself and others in great danger." Goodwitch scolded Ruby, which bought memories of Tex to the trio, who where standing in the room for emotional support. Ruby however, had a very well thought out and mature comeback.

"They started it!"

Goodwitch (the name had been given on the way to the station) was unimpressed. "If it were up to me, you'd be sent home" She paused "With a pat on the back..."

She noticed Ruby's smile "...And a slap on the wrist." She demonstrated with her riding crop, which Ruby barely avoided giving out an "Eeek!"

Goodwitch collected herself "But... there is someone here who would like to meet you."

Caboose got excited "Oh! Oh! Is it the tooth fairy?" Ignoring Caboose, Wash leaned forward eager to see who it was. Goodwitch moved to the side allowing a man with grey hair, and green clothes, holding a batch of cookies enter.

Wash recognised him immediately "Ozpin." Sarge pulled a contemplative pose "That headmaster fella? The one for Beacon?" Wash nodded, "The same.' 

Ruby shifted nervously as Ozpin came close. "Ruby Rose...You...have silver eyes." Observed Wash.

Wait, what? HE didn't say that. It was Ozpin!?

"T-t-thanks?" She stammered out unsure of how to react. In contrast the red, blue and freelancer seemed unfazed.

"Of course I have a voice double, of course." Wash mumbled, eh, he'd seen stranger things.

"Hmm, if that's _your_ double then mine, can _only_ be someone of unimaginable power and combat ability!" Sarge boasted/mused. Caboose had more pressing concerns. "Are those cookies!?" 

Unaware of his voice double, Ozpin asked Ruby "So! Where did you learn to do _this_?" He gestured with his head at the tablet on the table showing Ruby's fighting.

Ruby recovered as best she could "S-Signal Academy." She stuttered out. Ozpin's tone betrayed nothing "They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?"

"Well, one teacher in particular." Wash remembered having helped with her marksmanship and hand to hand, on top of some physical training that filed the gaps her uncles physical training. Sarge had boosted her already good mechanical skills with some....unconventional techniques. Caboose......caboose had kept her _entertained_ in class.

Ozpin only said 'I see..." He put the cookies on the table in front of Ruby. She tentatively picked one up and.......ate it in a single bite. Then, not seeing any rebuttal, she shovelled the rest into her mouth. Caboose looked on jealously.

Ozpin continued "It's just that I've only seen one other scythe-wielder of that skill before. A dusty, old crow..." 

Mumbling through her full mouth, Ruby replied "Oh! That's my uncle!"

She then swallowed the remaining cookies and wiped her mouth, embarrassed "Sorry. That's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal. I was complete _garbage_ before he took me under his wing. And now, I'm all like— Hooowaaah! Witchaaaa!" ruby then proceeded to make some karate-style poses and noises she learned from Wash, who had in turn learned them from Carolina. Well not the noises. They were all Ruby. 

Ozpin smiled "So I've noticed." He placed his cup on the table as he leaned in and then sat down opposite Ruby. "And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?" He asked 

"Well... I want to be a Huntress." Ruby replied nervously.

"You want to slay monsters?" The headmaster questioned.

''Yeah! I only have two more years of training left at Signal! And then I'm going to apply to Beacon! You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it! I mean the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and cool and really, **gosh** , you know!" she finished breathlessly.

As Glynda and Ozpin studied her, Wash caught on to what they were considering. _I_ _nteresting._

"Do you know who I am?" Ozpin put forward.

"You're Professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster at Beacon." Ruby replied.

At this Ozpin smiled. "Hello."

Ruby returned it "Nice to meet you."

Ozpin put his cards on the table (metaphorically speaking) 'You want to come to my school?"

"More than anything."

Ozpin exchanged glances with Glynda, who showed her disapproval with a "Humph" before he turned back to Ruby "Well, okay, then welcome aboard Miss Rose."

Ruby smiled, wide-eyed and open-mouthed and sarge followed the gesture.

"Finally, some adventure!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well here's the second chapter. please leave some constructive criticism regarding the story as well as any ideas i can borrow (steal). I hope i did all the characters and the fight some justice. until next week.


	3. The yellow perspective.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Ruby may be crazy, but Yang loved her so it was fine."

Ruby Rose is crazy.

That is to say that she isn't the most.....mentally stable. While you'd _never_ catch Yang saying this out-loud, she had no problem talking about this to herself inside her own head. Regardless if anyone else told her that her sister was crazy, Yang wouldn't hesitate to send them through the nearest wall. But that didn't take away from ruby's mental state.

Having known Ruby for the entirety of her sister's life Yang could pin point Ruby's change in mental state. 

It had happened over 3 years ago, ruby had just spent the night outside after Yang and her dad had gotten into an argument over Taiyang finding finding yang with some beer she had _borrowed_ from Qrow. Ruby spending the night outside when there was an argument wasn't exactly rare, so Yang didn't mind too much. But when ruby arrived back the following morning something had happened that made her delirious. She had talked about people that weren't there and having a small bit of a fever. So Rubes was sent to get some bed rest and it was figured that she'd be fine in the morning. She wasn't.

Sure initially Rubes had returned to normal but then Yang noticed some oddities. For starters she has a lot jumpier, like she was focused on something and Yang/dad had interrupted her. Which contrasted with her other ability to be near impossible to sneak up on, which has made pulling pranks _so_ much harder.

Second was the laughing. At random times every day without fail, Ruby would start laugh without Yang even telling one of her _totally awesome_ puns or something funny happening. It was very creepy. Interestingly when ever Yang confronted her lil sis about this, ruby would just claim she remembered something funny. Every time she asked.

The third change was the most noticeable, when around people she would mumble. Which didn't sound too bad. Until you realised she mumbled when ever people were _not_ talking to her. What she mumbled about varied greatly from the history of dust to pumas and warthogs of all things. 

The final change was the most disturbing. When ruby was alone or at least _thought_ she was. Ruby would transition from mumbling to full conversations. The first time this happened yang had didn't panic cause it sounded like ruby was on her scroll. But when she realised that no one else was talking _then_ she panicked. But bursting in to the room had only revealed that ruby was on her bed alone. The next couple of times it happened she listened, but it was like listening to half a conversation. These issues had came to a head last year.

It was the week after rubes 14th birthday when yang called her sister out. But....those were anything _but_ pleasant memories that yang tried to repress when possible, due to the sheer amount of _unpleasantness_ for everyone involved. Needless to say yang was never going to put the words "ruby" and "counselling" in the same sentence _ever_ again. 

But still it wasn't all bad. Ruby was the same as ever at signal (excepting some detentions for laughing in class) and was never called out or bullied for her _eccentric_ behaviour thanks to Yang's protection.

So things were great, Ruby may be crazy, but Yang loved her so it was fine. 

Now yang was about to go to beacon which was _great_ in her opinion as now, Ruby would (hopefully) come out of her shell and find an actual friend that could look past the raging insanity. 

Then Ruby got accepted into beacon.

Two years early.

For doling out vigilante justice.

When she was supposed to be under yang's own care.

**Great.**

Now Ruby would be two years younger than everyone else, talking to herself in empty corridors, have absolutely no friends cause "i don't need any yang" and be more of an outcast that ever. Great. Just **great.**

Tearing herself from her internal monologue, Yang took a deep breath and silently counted backwards from ten like her anger management counsellor she had at age 10, once suggested before yang broken her nose. A long winded internal rant is not what she needed right now. No, what she needed was a plan to get Ruby some friends. Fortunately planning at he consequences of her actions was one her greatest strengths, so once she had her idea Ruby would be drowning in non-judgemental friends. 

Resolving to come up with a plan later, Yang scanned the airship she was on and looked for her baby sis who had drifted off shortly after yang entered her internal monologue. She spotted Ruby mumbling to herself at a window, seemingly distracted. An great grin expanded onto her face as she casually strolled over to Ruby, waited a moment and engulfed Ruby in the biggest best hug she could give.

"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!" Yeah that sounded encouraging.

"Please stop." Came the adorable protests, but her wish was her command. 

Letting Ruby go, Yang gave best grin "But I'm so proud of you!" she exclaimed. It was the truth after all, not _every_ crazy fifteenth year old got moved up two years into the best combat school in remnant after all.

"Really Sis, it was nothing...." But trust Ruby to try and down play it.

"What do you mean? It was incredible!" She slapped her own knee to emphasise her next point "Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the bee's knees."

Ruby spoke far too defensively "I don't want to be the "bee's knees", okay?" Her eyes darted between the two spaces next to Yang "I don't want to be any kind of knees! I just want to be a normal girl, with normal knees."

Something was wrong. Probing Yang pressed "What's with you? Aren't you excited?"

"Of course I'm excited... I just..." Ruby gave a sigh "I got moved ahead _two years_. I don't want people to think I'm _special_ or anything." Yang leaned over and gave her sister a one-armed hug "But you _are_ special." Confidence would be an issue with making friends, maybe there were people who liked the anti-social? 

Before Yang could give more reassurances and slip in a pun or two, a hologram of some sorta hot teacher woman came up, replacing some news report at had been playing. 

"who's that?" She asked Ruby, hoping she knew something.

"I am Glynda Goodwitch."

"Oh."

"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." the teacher said, using one of those lecture tone dad would use when teaching.

Then the clouds parted, almost on Que, to show Vale in all it's glory, causing her and Rubes to take in the view. "Oh, wow! Look guys, you can see Signal from up here!" Her next sentence was more quiet "I guess home isn't too far after all." 

yang smiled at the declaration. "Beacon's our home, now." A better one once we're settled in and you have some new friends and _not_ the voices in your head of course, Yang added silently.

But before Yang could go further with planning, some other blonde student emptied his lunch on her shoes.

Great.

* * *

Agent Washington had never been a lucky man. 

He had been lied to, betrayed, stabbed, shot, had a grappling hood stuck to his cod piece and had been turned insane by his own AI committing suicide inside his own head. But still, he survived.

Mostly.

Now years later from these events he was living inside the head of a teenage girl that was every bit as naive and trusting as he had been during project freelancer. Joy.

Still, he had it better than Sarge who missed both his shotgun and the ability to enact violence with it (mostly on Grif). 

They both had nothing on Caboose who was in love with everything that seemed to happen on remnant.

A place that was both like an so unalike with his native universe. For example the faunus, a species of human/animal hybrids that coexisted with humanity. They were a weird group to be sure, but Wash had no problems with them. As a species. The white fang bought up painful memories of the insurrectionists and project freelancer, so he had a more negative view on them (plus they were terrorists which was bad).

Another thing that Wash didn't like about Remnant was the idea of combat schools. Sure in theory a place for teenagers to learn about the world and prepare for combat _sounded_ great. But Wash was a realist (pessimist) he knew that only bad things could come with what was basically a university where all the students had super powers and were taught to use them for combat. Still at least this was Beacon, which was reputed to be the best, so _hopefully_ there would be no crazy incidents or explosive drama.

Speaking of explosive drama, it seems like Yang has dashed off without warning to catch up with 'friends' leaving Ruby (and by extension Wash, Sarge and Caboose) alone. 

But before anyone could say anything Ruby fell backwards into a luggage cart, sending cases flying. Some woman in all white was standing over her. so much for no drama.

"What are you doing?!" the lady in white asked/yelled at the disoriented Ruby. 

"Whose the miss crabby pants?" Asked Sarge who was promptly ignored as Ruby mumbled out a quiet apology, which only served to agitate rich lady further.

"Sorry?! Do you have any idea of the damage you could have caused?" 

Intelligently Ruby replied "uhhhhh?" which caused Wash to sigh, "come on Ruby you taught us what dust is, answer her." He implored her, not wanting her to make the same mistakes he did in freelancer.

Encouraged by Wash, Ruby answered "a-a lot?" of course the rich girl took offence again. "Are you asking me or telling me?"

"A-telling you?" at this the rich girl pinched the bridge of her nose and and handed Ruby a leaflet "just read this and never talk to me again."

"S-sure." stammered out Ruby and as the other lady walked away she called "Nice to meet you, who ever you are..." she finished quietly.

"You really don't know who that is?'

Four voices called out at once.

"Jesus!" 

"Great SAM hell Arnold Taylor!"

"Hello."

"eep!"

Of course the raven haired girl could only hear ruby's scream.

"Sorry did I startle you?"

Wash got a good look at the new arrival she was a fair-skinned young woman with wavy black hair and amber eyes. She had a bow on top of her head, possibly hiding cat faunus ears. Wash kept a note of that.

"N-no! of course not!" Ruby denied "I was just..."

Sarge gave a suggestion "You were thinking about killing blues!"

"I was deep i thought about k-the colour blue." The possible faunus gave a chuckle.

"Right." She smiled "I saw your 'conversation' with the Schnee, I wanted to know if you were fine." So the rich girl was a Schnee, presumably here from Atlas. Interesting.

Ruby crossed her arms in an nervous fashion "Yea..i'm fine and Ruby." silence. "That is m-my name is Ruby Rose."

"Blake Belledonna." She said politely "Would you like to go to the hall with me?" 

Ruby's smile was a thousand vaults "Sure!"

"Yeah! New friend!" Caboose cheered. "As long as she isn't a dirty blue.' Sarge grumbled.

The gang set off but Wash noticed something that caught his attention. "Wash, you comm'in?" 

"You guy's go ahead i need to check something out." Not waiting for the reply Wash went to the target.

"Now where am i supposed to go?" The blonde said miserably. In a tone wash was far too familiar with.

He didn't know why the blonde student had caught his eye, but his current attitude was far too reminiscent of wash when he was in the early days aboard the mother of invention, lost and friendless. 

"Forward i guess, why did have to vomit?" He bemoaned the blonde put his hand through his hair "Starting great Jaune......start'n great."

Feeling bad Wash gave some unheard words of comfort "Its better than my first day rookie, at least you don't have Carolina hounding you about training."

Of course wash should have learned to keep his stupid mouth shut by now.

"Excuse me are you alright?" A far too familiar voice called out "Carolina..."

In the flesh was Carolina. But younger, far younger. It was an image he had only seen in _his_ memories.

"Fine, fine" said Jaune "Just, j-just lost." Carolina laughed, the same musical laugh he rarely heard on the MOI.

"Allow me to help, i'm Pyrrha." She seemed to wait for a reaction

"Pyrrha Nikos" The name rang a bell, wasn't she that person on the cereal Ruby liked?

"Well, the name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue - ladies love it!" Wash couldn't help it he laughed, that was exactly the type of pick up lines that York would use on Carolina all the time.

"Do they?" Pyrrha asked with a smile, which already made Jaune more successful than York.

Jaune stumbled over his words"They will! Well, I-I hope they will. My mom always says that... Never mind."

Pyrrha laughed and so did Wash. "Nice to meet you Jaune, b-but do you really not know who i am?"

"Should I?"

"No!" She yelled before quieting down "no, definitely not." So she was famous Wash assumed, but was hiding it, suggesting that she disliked the fame and wanted a normal life. He again made a note of that.

Fortunately Jaune seemed to be denser than wash was at his age "Alright Pyrrha, would you like to go to the hall together?"

"I'd like that Jaune."

And so the pair set off, unaware of the man walking behind them, lost in memory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the new chapter, i hope that it's better than the last, thanks to Krazymagic for their advice which really helped. A new chapter will come soon due to how much free time i have due to COVID19. let me know what you think about the chapter and any criticisms you have about it. ideas for interactions and the story in general will always be appreciated.   
> till next time, catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	4. The First Step.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When one considered everything, Sarge was an incredibly patient person.

When one considered everything, Sarge was an incredibly patient person.

He had dealt with space pirates, genocidal A.I, government conspiracies, blue team problems and Grif. So when it came to the last three years of his life, trapped in a little girls head with blues and no shotgun. Sarge was able to exercise his enormous capacity for patience once more. 

It helped that Ruby, was a red through and through.

Intelligent. A master combatant. Fantastic with machines. Wearing exclusively the colour red (with a smidgen of black). It was no wonder that Ruby reminded him of a younger, more _female_ version of himself.

Now Sarge had a once in life opportunity to spread the influence of red team to a world _mostly_ free of the blues. Sure the inability to enact violence on his enemies was a bummer, but the opportunity to create a new generation of reds, free from the inevitable evil of the blues? That was worth it.

And now they were entering beacon. What he has been told to be _the_ best combat school around, perfect for the next faze in his training of the youngest red.

"Sargent." 

"Yes, Caboose?"

"This is a very big place."

"That's the point bluetard."

Sarge just wished he had better choice of friendenempanions. (A combo of: friend, enemy and companion.)

Still....Caboose wasn't wrong, the ceiling of the beacon hall was easily the size of 10 to 15 warthogs and was nearly a football field in length. It meant for a lot of potential reds. Speaking of......

Sarge turned his head in the direction of Ruby and this 'Blake' character, the newcomer seemed mostly silent so far. Giving out monosyllabic responses, which was matched by Ruby who seemed to be running her mouth faster than Carolina with her speed booster.

"-and then yang got angry. Like really, really angry and totally punched him through the wall, but she got a detention for it, but on the bright side no one tried to steal my books again." 

Sarge remembered that day, it was a fun one. 

But Blake seemed more confused than anything, "but why did they try and take your books?"

Ruby shrugged "cause they couldn't beat me in combat class. " She put her hand up to her chin, "which isn't much of a surprise, really, cause of my aura."

Blake opened her mouth, but before she could get a word out a loud voice called out 

"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot"

It was Yang, waving her arm to signal Ruby, Caboose was already by her side. 

"Oh! Hey, I-I gotta go! I'll see you after the ceremony!" Then Ruby went off faster than Blake could reply. Leaving the possible ninja to shrug and wander off.

Sarge went over to the familiar faces

"Well, i-a made a friend."

Seems they didn't even wait for him to start the conversation. Rude.

Yang went still for a moment "a friend?"

"Yep."

"As in another, living person?"

"Yep." Ruby replied.

Sarge saw the signs before it happened and tried to warn her, "look out Ruby, she's gonna-"

But it was too late.

Ruby's face went red as her namesake as Yang crushed the younger girl in a hug that rivalled Caboose's (Sarge often wondered who was stronger), who promptly tried to join in only to phase through the two girls. 

"Hey! No fair! Where's my hug?" 

"A-a-a-aair." Came the gasps, poor soul, at least this was valuable endurance training.

"Oh!" Yang released her sister "tell me everything."

But before anything happened Wash's (voice) double walked up on stage. 

" I'll... keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Eh, Sarge had heard (and gave) better speeches. Like the one he gave before they face the meta. Now _that_ was a speech.

He turned to tell Washington himself exactly that........ only to find him missing.

"Where's Wash?"

* * *

Blake Belladonna watched her target carefully. She did so through the corner of her eye, using a book as cover.

This was a common tactic she used in the white fang for recon in missions in public areas.

Fortunately this particular target seemed to be not as observant as all of her previous target (back when she was still with the white fang), only being a fellow student and not an atlas specialist.

This target was a little girl called Ruby Rose.

Blake's interest in the younger girl was sparked on the bulkhead to beacon.

She had been reading the same book she was reading now and had overheard something that had made her very interested in where ruby had come from.

"Well, beacon should be better than project freelancer."

A week before Blake had left the white fang, an team arrived from a data retrieval mission with files regarding projects for the atlas military and schnee dust company. The file was heavily corrupted due to hasty retrieval but the names of the projects stood out. Project _stardust_ , project _iron-fist,_ project _black sabre_ and project _freelancer._

Now months later, Blake has found a fellow student explicitly mention "project freelancer" when talking to herself.

This could not be a coincidence or mistake, even through her bow her faunus ears could not have misheard her.

So Blake followed, kept her distance watched as Ruby talked to someone (presumably on an earpiece)en she saw her interact with a 'sister' that looked nothing like Ruby.

She watched the confrontation with the infamous Weiss Schnee, who Ruby apparently did not recognise. Then Blake saw an opportunity to interact with Ruby and hope she might mistakenly give her a clue as to what was project freelancer.

But when the younger girl started talking, she. Did. Not. Stop.

Blake only had to give the most minimalist responses for Ruby to start rambling. Still by time they parted ways Blake had managed to get a fair bit of information out of Ruby.

Firstly, Ruby was socially awkward/had little friends. This was obvious in the way Ruby had been rambling, giving far too much information about herself and not trusting the conversation to continue when she stopped talking.

Secondly, Ruby had grown up on patch and went to signal. Unless Ruby was a compulsive liar, she could not fake _that_ many details about her time at signal.

Thirdly, the name of her sister was 'Yang.'

And finally, Ruby herself was only fifteen. Not the age one would expect for a beacon student. While Ruby didn't say why she had gotten in so early, Blake could only assume it was for a good reason. Possibly somethingto do with her aura as the younger girl had mentioned.

Still...... looking at Ruby now, it seemed that she was currently writing a letter of some sort and would most likely be doing it for a while.

Satisfied that her target was not going anywhere, Blake turned back to her book and started to properly read it.

 _ **'The Man with Two Souls'**_ it was one of her Favourites and with the sequel " _The Man With Two Souls II: The Man With Four Souls"_ being released next month, there was no better time for a reread.

"To cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die to those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had of late begun to pamper. To cast it in with Hyde, was to die to a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at a blow and forever, despised and friendless. The bargain might appear unequal; but the-"

Blake stopped reading for a moment as she contemplated the richness of the characters. What would it be like to have to have two souls? To be in a constant struggle for control, to watch as another controls you body, unable to do anything. How much _angst_ and darkness would that person have as they went about life? What _grim_ things would they say?

"Hi Blake!"

It was years of practice that kept Blake from jumping out of her skin.

From the corner of her eye she saw it was Ruby and her sister.

"Hello ruby." Her eyes did not leave the page. The book was getting to one of the best bits, she was not stopping now. Fishing for information could come later.

"This is my sister, Yang."

She continued reading. "Nice to meet you....Blake, right?"

She turned the page. "Yes, good to meet you."

Yang turned to her sister, "well she's chatty." Yang muttered sarcastically.

"Q-quiet she could hear you."

"No she can't."

Blake could.

Ruby tried a new avenue of conversation.

"What's it about?"

Blake stopped reading the sentence she was on and turned her eye's to meet Ruby's "Well... i-it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body."

Blake put her eye's back to the page when Ruby's next sentence shocked her.

"I need that book." 

Blake physically turned her head up in time to see Yang give Ruby a light smack on the head.

"Ruby be nice." Yang scolded.

"I a-mean i w-would like to borrow you book when, your done, please?"

Blake tilted her head quizzically, "why?"

Ruby seemed to try and scramble for an answer, "W-well, I love books. Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters... They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress!"

 _That_ made Blake laugh a little, "And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?" She asked, some of her realism (pessimism) colour the question.

Ruby however was optimistic "Well, I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books" Ruby gave a pause "Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!"

Blake considered this and thought "That's... very ambitious for a child." and told Ruby the same. "Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale." She finished.

Ruby took this in stride "Well, that's why we're here! To make it better." Ruby replied nobly 

The big sister, Yang gave a wide smile and hugged Ruby into the air. "Oh, I am so proud of my baby sister!" Cut it out! came Ruby's cry as she kicked out of the hug and the forced sisterly bonding devolved into a mess of fighting limbs.

Blake laughed internally at the sight.

But the fun was ruined when Weiss Schnee stormed onto the scene in her own pajamas as Ruby caught and trapped Yang's leg. "What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"

If Blake had known that a schnee was going to beacon instead of atlas academy, Blake isn't sure she would have chose beacon.

Then Yang had to open her big mouth, "who are you supposed, princess?"

Ruby ignored this and said "Shh! Guys, she's right! People are trying to sleep!"

"Who am i supposed to be?!"

Blake, who rolled her eyes at the fight, it looked like she wasn't going to get anymore reading done tonight. Noting the page she closed the book, blew out the nearby candle and lied back waiting for sleep to take her.

* * *

Ruby was shaking out of anticipation at the cliff overlooking the forest.

She was here! At Beacon a whole two years early!

And despite the warnings Yang gave that they might not for some reason be on the same team, Ruby was sure she could handle it, she had three friends in Sarge, Caboose and Wash. Plus Blake, who was like her first new friend in years! So Ruby would be fine.

She would take out all of the Grimm using crescent rose and pass initiation, be a part of the greatest team sense her mom's and be the best huntress ever. Of all time.

She then saw something that made her even more excited.

"Wash!" She whisper-yelled.

"Ruby." the freelancer nodded "Sorry I was late."

"Never mind late, where were you yesterday? No one knew where you were!" 

"I was doing some recon, exploring the school." Ruby opened her mouth but wash cut her off "I'll tell you more later, whats the game plan here?"

Seeing Ozpin and Glynda making their way to the cliffs, Ruby tilted her head in the direction of Sarge, who caught on and began explaining.

"Well, the plan as is, is for one of us to stay with Ruby here, while the others w'll follow the, other students, an' get an idea of possible teammates."

Wash considered this for a moment, it was surprisingly decent considering previous ideas by Sarge and Ruby (to say nothing of Caboose). Only one of them were needed to keep an eye on Ruby and the rest looking at the other students _would_ make things much easier going forward.

Ruby could see the gears turning in Wash's head as he considered the plan.

"It could work, whose sticking with Ruby?" Success! She had made a plan that Wash didn't dismiss a "terrible" or "impractical".

"I'll watch over the future of the reds." Said Sarge as he went to her side on her silver tile.

"I shall go with snow white! She is the best princess!" said Caboose as he took a place next to the crabby rich girl, Weiss if she remembered what was yelled at Yang correctly.

Wash nodded. "i'll go with Jaune." which caused sarge to tilt his helmet confusedly. "Who's that?"

"Someone interesting." Was all he said cryptically, before going to the boy she remembered vomited on Yang's shoes.

Ozpin was now in front of the group with miss goodwitch, causing Ruby to snap to attention.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin started at length.

Goodwitch continued. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... _today_."

Very forward and a bit concerning but she could handle that.

 **"** These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." ozpin told the gathered.

Ruby gave out an involuntary groan, what if her team didn't work well? What if they thought she was weird!?

Ozpin gave no comfort "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Ruby was fairly certain that she heard something shatter. 

"What."

Ozpin ignored this "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you **will** die."

Sarge chipped in his two cents, "finally some action."

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

The blonde next to Wash had one but was ignored.

"Good! Now, take your positions."

Ruby got into a suitably awesome looking pose. 

"Ready, Big Red?" asked Sarge, to which Ruby grinned and nodded. she was _born_ ready.

She ignored the blond asking the headmaster something and saw Weiss being spring-boarded into the air. Taking Caboose with her. 

Then went Yang.

Then she was flying.

As she flew she had a massive grin on her face. This was it. The start on her journey to being the best huntress of all time.

This was the first step.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter, introducing some new perspectives. I've had some fantastic ideas on what to with this story and now know what the plan is going forward. this fic will cover volume 1. with a definite sequel for volume 2 and a possible one for volume 3. thank everyone for there comments they mean a lot to me.  
> let me know if I've made any major errors so that they could be corrected post haste. and stay tuned for next time which will cover the initiation,.
> 
> it should be noted that the text for 'the man with two souls' was taken from doctor Jekyll and mister Hyde (and obviously doesn't belong to me). and some of the dialog was lifted from the episodes themselves.  
> also disclaimer: rwby belongs to rooster teeth and the late great Monty Oum. 
> 
> till next time, catch y'all on the flip flop.


	5. new faces, new problems.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was hated by the universe. Weiss was certain of of it.

"Birdie, no!" A loud cry echoed through the forest.

Weiss paused where she landed in the forest, who was that?

She waited for a follow up but was rewarded with silence.

Well that wasn't her problem, what she needed to was find Pyrrha Nikos and become her partner.

A perfectly trivial and mundane task, that she could easily accomplish, the Grimm would fall easily to their combined force and the rest of Weiss's time at beacon would simply fall into place.

Now which way did nikos fall? But as Weiss looked into the forest she heard something.

" ᵗʰᵃᵗ ʷᵃˢ ᶠᵘⁿ."

Weiss looked around but failed to spot anyone.

So she dismissed what she heard as the wind, picked a direction she believed was reasonable and started walking.

She was a Schnee, she _will_ find Niko's, she _will_ pass initiation, she _will_ prove that going to beacon was the right move and she _will_ redeem the name of her company.

Everything depended on it.

* * *

Ruby's mourning of the bird lasted all of a second as she remembered what she was supposed to be doing.

Landing.

Firing off a few rounds from Crescent Rose to slow her down, Ruby then turned her precious weapon into its scythe form and caught the branch of a tree in her blade....only for it to cut cleanly through the branch.

She knew that Wash's idea of sharpening Crescent Rose before initiation was a bad idea.

Trying again she swung Crescent Rose at the nearest tree truck. This worked better and she used the momentum to spiral down the tree in a fluid motion.

Sarge's landing was far less graceful. 

The red leader was unable to 'phase' through the tree branches and as a result was force to hit each as though they were made of steel.

"Oh, ah, ow, sonof a-" Sarge landed in face first in front of her. Before immediately springing up like nothing happened.

"You ok Sarge?"

"Dandy." Said the red leader indignantly "where to big red?" 

Ruby folded up Crescent Rose and stored it at her back. "We need to find Yang." She told him seriously.

Sarge considered this for a moment before asking, "where did ya last see her?"

Ruby pointed in said direction.

"Right, then we are going that way." Sarge said as he pointed a couple of meters to the right of where Ruby pointed.

"But Yang was-" Sarge cut her off.

"Becaaaause," Sarge drew out, "you last saw her in the air, so odds are she's went further into the forest than that." 

That...was a fair point. Odds are Yang used Ember Celica to get more air time out of being launched into the air. 

"Your right, but how do we know how far she went?" Ruby said biting her lip in worry.

Sarge put a reassuring arm on Ruby's shoulder and gave a hearty laugh, "don't worry Ruby, we here at red team have a little something called gut instinct." He made a grandiose gesture with the other arm, "and mine has never failed me."

Ruby took a deep breath, "right, I trust you Sarge, grab hold of my hood."

Sarge did so, as he couldn't phase through it, and the pair darted off using Ruby's semblance to burst off at high speed.

"Gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang." That was the mantra that played on loop in her head.

She also weighed her options, Yang would be ideal, being her sister and all, Blake would also work being her newest friend, Weiss would _not_ be ideal considering the poor impression she made on the rich girl at the courtyard and Yang's own argument with the girl last night. 

And that was everyone she knew at Beacon. Maybe Yang was right about her needing more friends than just her and the colour trio. 

Consumed with her thoughts, Ruby didn't notice the person in front of her until to was almost too late.

"WAITWATCHOUT!" She called out before she collided with a familiar stranger.

* * *

She was hated by the universe. Weiss was certain of of it.

Why else would she get stuck with such a clearly useless partner?

"Come on, come on! Stupid!" Her probable partner was hanging with Pyrrha's spear keeping him pinned to the tree by his hood.

Then he noticed her and they made eye contact.

'The first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years.' Ozpin had said.

She was hated by the universe.

"ᵂᵃˢʰᶦⁿᵍᵗᵘᵇ, ᵃᵍᵉⁿᵗ ᵂᵃˢʰᶦⁿᵍᵗᵘᵇᵎ"

"ʰᶦ ᶜᵃᵇᵒᵒˢᵉ."

It really was windy today.

Back to the matter on hand....Jaune, she believed that was his name, was now her partner.

Hmmmm.

He was more concerned with flirting with Pyrrha than talking with her and had left Weiss alone, but he had somehow only known of Pyrrha through Pumpkin Pete's Cereal.

He didn't look like much of a fighter, but granted neither did she. He couldn't have gotten into Beacon without combat training so evidently his appearance _must_ be deceiving her.

Still, even if Jaune wasn't up to scratch, he had to be better than the little girl and her brute of a sister from yesterday.

And she was a Schnee, A _Schnee_ wouldn't give up at the slightest inconvenience. _Winter_ wouldn't give up at the first sign of trouble. Neither would Weiss. 

"Hello? Are you going to let me down? Please?" 

Weiss turned her head up towards the embarrassed arc.

"Fine."

She summoned a glyph underneath his feet, giving him stable ground and leverage which he used to pull the javelin out of the tree.

She then lowered the glyph gently to the ground, Jaune in tow.

Jaune put his left hand behind his head and sheepishly said "thanks, guess I owe you...partner?"

Weiss looked him dead in the eyes, "we may be partners, but by no means does this make us friends."

She stormed off hearing Jaune sigh and start to follow her. on the way out she grabbed the javelin, she could still be on the same team as Pyrrha after all.

"ˡᵒᵒᵏ ᵗʰᵉʸ'ʳᵉ ᶠʳᶦᵉⁿᵈˢ ⁿᵒʷ ʷᵃˢʰᶦⁿᵍ⁻ᵗᵘᵇ."

"ᴵ ˢᵘᵖᵖᵒˢᵉ ᵗʰᵉʸ ᵃʳᵉ ᶜᵃᵇᵒᵒˢᵉ, ᶦ ˢᵘᵖᵖᵒˢᵉ ᵗʰᵉʸ ᵃʳᵉ."

* * *

Pyrrha Nikos was having a good day. 

She was at beacon, away from Mistral, away from the arena fights, the sponsors, the fans and all the expectations that came from being the famous "invincible girl." 

She was no fool and didn't expect beacon to be a clean break, just a place where she could meet others her age and possibly grow out of the role she was stuck in.

But something wonderful happened at her entry.

She met someone who had no idea who she was.

Jaune Arc.

He had flirted with her. _flirted._

So now here she was heading towards where she pinned him to a tree. He was _exactly_ what she was looking for in a partner.

He probably needed her help after asking the headmaster about "landing strategies."

And his "thanks." He yelled back to her was vindication enough.

"WAITWATCHOUT!"

That was all she heard before someone ran right into her, sending them both into a heap on the floor.

Untangling herself from the the other person, Pyrrha looked at them and saw a pair of silver eyes meet her own.

"OH, NO I'M SO SORRY!" 

"It's fine." Pyrrha told the shorter girl.

They both got up and dusted themselves off, taking a moment to recover and examine the other person. 

She was shorter than Pyrrha was, and wore a black long-sleeved dress with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves and a combat skirt. She was also a bit shorter than Pyrrha.

Ruby took longer than Pyrrha did to examine her. 

She braced for the inevitable recognition and subsequent talk about her fame.

"You're the person on my cereal."

"What?"

The other girl elaborated. "I a-mean that you're that person in the, tournaments that Yang watches." She paused "and my cereal." She finished mumbling the last bit.

Pyrrha gave a small laugh "I suppose so, my name is Pyrrha Nikos."

"Ruby Rose."

Ruby lifted up her hand and Pyrrha shook it.

"Is the shield your weapon?" 

"No, Akoúo here is just a shield with a sharpened edge."

Ruby blinked, "then were's your weapon?"

Pyrrha shifted sheepishly, "I...used it to pin Jaune to a tree." She admitted.

"Oh....want to go get it?" Ruby asked.

"Ruby I would be glad to....partner."

Ruby gave Pyrrha a smile that warmed the gladiators heart. She might not be Jaune but Ruby seemed a decent person with an enthusiastic attitude, that had no real interest in her fame. 

Besides she could still be on the same team as Jaune.

"Lead the way, and oh! On the way I can tell you about Crescent Rose!"

So the pair set off, but as they did so Pyrrha could swear she heard one distorted word. Barely louder than the wind.

"ᶜᵃʳᵒˡᶦⁿᵃˀ" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the latest chapter, released back to back with the previous one. i hope that it is enjoyable.  
> please let me know about any major errors in writing or lore that i made so that they can be corrected post-haste.  
> all comments and constructive criticism are welcomed, as are ideas for the story itself.
> 
> also i hope that the tiny text is legible, if not let me know so that it can be changed.
> 
> next chapter will cover the rest of the initiation up to team formations.
> 
> till next time, catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	6. The Red Team Methodology.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Ruby!" He began "I believe it is time to tell you, about the red team methodology on situations such as this."

Weiss and Jaune were lost.

To be honest this didn't surprise Washington, as it seemed that they both had a terrible sense of direction. 

One might think that they might cancel out each other and have a collective, decent sense of direction. 

But it only seemed to multiply the troubles.

Also Weiss looked ready to blow a gasket the next time Jaune offered a suggestion and that would only attract some Beowolves, which would be less than ideal.

"Where. Is. The. Forest. Temple." Weiss said mostly to herself. Wash would offer a suggestion or two, but he only had a fleeting idea on the location as he was more concerned with the fact that ozpin used jump pads to get the student into the forest which he believed was probably not the most ethical or moral way of doing this. So he only had a small glimpse of the ruins themselves, due to his own distracted thoughts.

And of course the duo was going in exactly the wrong direction. 

Also Wash was pretty much incapable of communicating with the duo in any way so there was that.

"What if we followed the trees?" Suggested Jaune only for Weiss to immediately dismiss the notion.

"Follow the trees? Are you brain dead?" She took a breath "we are in a forest and forests typically, are made of trees, you dunce!"

Caboose then chipped in his two cents, "what if we climbed the trees, then we can build a tree fort!" 

Unhearing of Cabooses suggestion Jaune looked down dejectedly.

"Sorry."

Weiss was unmoved.

"one more useless suggestion and you will be gagged."

"Wait, what if we climb the trees? Then we can get a look from higher ground." Huh, that wasn't half a bad idea, good job rookie.

"Fine." Weiss said in agreement. "That idea isn't half bad, but you have to do it."

"Why not you?"

"I am the heiress of the schnee dust company, I do not go gallivanting around trees." Weiss said, looking indignant at the very suggestion.

Wash imagines that if he were Jaune he would have argued with the heiress a little more, but it seems that Jaune was either more chivalrous or lacking in backbone than wash did when he was younger.

"Right, ok." Jaune took a deep breath before looking at the various trees obviously looking for one to climb. but before he could choose.

"YEEEE-HAAAAW!" 

The loud cry came from the right and was accompanied by the sounds of loud crashing and the sounds of breaking tree branches.

Without thinking Wash ran to tackle the nearest person (Weiss in this case) out of the way of whatever was heading their way.

Of course the expected out come happened with him simply phasing right through the heiress and head first into a tree. (Unbeknown to Wash, Weiss actually stumbled a little when he phased through her.)

Ow.

The new arrive made them selves known as an Ursa came running out from the bushes and tossed Jaune to the side.

Only for the beast to continue running head first into a tree, the person on it's back jumping off at the last second.

Wait what?

True to wash's sense of vision, a girl with ginger hair and pink (not lightish red) skirt came off the (poor?) Ursa's back and look at it disappointingly. 

" Awwww... It's broken." She said dejectedly, but she brightened when another student, a man this time with a purple highlight in his hair, came bursting out form the same bush the girl came from.

"Nora! Please." The poor soul seemed out of breath, "...Don't ever do that again."

"But Ren, it was fun!" 

"ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY INSANE!?" 

Ah Weiss had recovered. Lovely. Although she wasn't wrong, who (apart from Sarge) thought that riding a Grimm was a good idea?

"Nope!" The new girl said cheerfully, "I'm Nora silly, and this is Ren." Nora gestured to the person in question, who gave a sigh at his partners antics.

Weiss's eye twitched in an way that in Wash's experience was a precursor to extreme violence from South and Carolina.

"Uuggghhhhhhh." Came Jaune's moans as he got up. Which was enough the distract the trio from the impending argument.

"whoa are you alright?" asked Nora as she rushed over to help jaune up.

"Yes, but I would like some cookies." Said Caboose with a serious tone, "I get very hungry."

"Fine, I just have a hurt arm." Jaune replied to Nora, rubbing his left arm as he did so.

"Why didn't you activate your aura?" Asked Wash, he should have been plenty capable of doing so, even with the limited reaction time.

"Why didn't you activate your aura?" Asked Ren, who had a far greater chance of being answered.

"My what?" Jaune replied intelligently. 

Weiss stepped forward concerned. "Jaune, you know what aura is, right? Even _you_ can't be that much of an dolt."

"Psch! Of course I do! Do _you_ know what Aura is?" 

It turns out Jaune was that much of a dolt. 

"Goddammit rookie." He said softly.

Ren stepped in to answer, "aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts."

A very textbook answer, the same Ruby gave him and the others when they asked three years ago.

"What?"

"Basically it's a bit our soul that acts like a force-field." Ren put in layman's terms.

"How do you activate it?" Jaune asked, which had Wash curious as Ruby only skimmed over that in her explanation. 

"Allow me."

Much to Wash''s surprise, while Weiss had looked ready to tear off Jaune's head, she had volunteered to activate his aura.

Weiss took his hand and solemnly said "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death." She placed her hand on his chest. "I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee." 

While she had said the small oath, Weiss had been glowing a soft white, the colour of her aura Wash assumed, and now that it was done she returned to normal. 

"Neat." Caboose summed up.

"My sister taught me that, now your arm will heal and you can be useful in combat." Weiss told jaune. "Now, back to the matter at hand we have to find the ruins, we've dilly dallied too long here."

She had a point, the unlocking of the aura and the increased negativity had most likely attracted some Beowolves by now. it was a small wonder they weren't already here.

Ren nodded, "yes, I saw the ruins as I came in, they're that way." 

Weiss nodded and the group set off, as they did Nora asked Weiss,

"Sooooo, do you think we'll be on the same team?"

Wash could only hope Ruby and Sarge had it better.

* * *

There was no Jaune nor Wash nor javelin at the tree when they arrived.

This was fine by Ruby as it clearly meant that Jaune must have pulled himself free or had help from someone else.

Although her new friend (and partner, how awesome was that!) seemed disappointed.

"He's gone." was all Pyrrha said as the pair and Sarge looked at the tree which _did_ have a hole near the top of it.

"Someone probably pulled him out." Ruby comforted.

"Well there's no blood so she probably didn't skewer him like a fish." Sarge added thoughtfully. ruby decided not to tell pyrrha this. The mental image would probably not be the most comforting.

Ruby turned to her new partner, "we could probably meet Jaune at place that has the relics, and get you weapon back as well." Then when they met up, they could form, the most awesome ever team of all time.

"'Your right Ruby." Pyrrha told her, "It's just a matter of finding the relics. Any ideas?"

This threw Ruby through a loop. "Your...asking me?"

"Of course, _your_ my partner so it's bet that we worked with each other when solving problems." Pyrrha gave Ruby a warm smile, "I'm sure that any ideas you have would be fine."

Right. Ideas....ideas, ideas, ideas. 

Sarge put an arm over her shoulder to catch her attention.

"Ruby!" He began "I believe it is time to tell you, about the red team methodology on situations such as this. While most others would simply start walking, but we? We wouldn't. We're the Reds. We don't walk anywhere. We travel as the good Lord intended: in the largest possible vehicle with the maximum horsepower allowed by local law enforcement. And if there's no cars available, we find the biggest, nastiest, meanest, land animal we possibly can, beat the crap out of it, and saddle that puppy up."

As Sarge finished his lesson the screech of a Nevermore filled the sky, causing both Ruby and Pyrrha to look up at it.

"Do birds count?" 

She believes Sarge is grinning under his helmet. "They most certainly do."

"Ruby what did you say?" Pyrrha asked the young red.

"I have an idea."

* * *

It wasn't long into their walk that Yang and her new partner found a clearing with some ruins.

"Think this is it?" Yang asked.

Blake gave her an incredulous look and headed down the hill.

Yang followed, yeah that probably was a redundant question.

Closer to the ruins themselves, Yang saw what exactly the 'relics' were.

"Chess pieces?" Blake asked out loud, probably rhetorically.

Thinking back to the occasional game she played with Ruby, Yang noticed something.

"Some of them are missing." Yang paused for a second, "Looks like we weren't the first ones here."

"Well, I guess we should pick one." 

Yang gave a neutral hum and studied the remaining pieces. Before seeing a very familiar piece.

"How about a cute little pony?" She asked Blake as she picked up the knight piece. She always called it the pony to mess with and tease Ruby, who always got frustrated at Yang's terminology.

"Sure." Blake gave her a smirk.

As they walked towards the centre of the ruins Yang reflected on what had happened. Aside from fighting a few Ursa when she met Blake and the 4 Beowolves that had tried to ambush them a few minutes ago, they really hadn't run into much trouble. 

It was sort of disappointing, she had hoped for more of a challenge.

Keeping the disappointment out of her voice "That wasn't too hard!" She told Blake optimistically.

"Well, it's not like this place is very difficult to find." They shared a smile, but the Blake turned around.

"Do you hear that?"

Yang put herself on alert and opened her ears but didn't hear anything. 

Silence was the name of the game for the next few minutes, then:

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The blond that vomited on her shoes on the bulkhead to beacon was running over the hill with that crabby rich girl Weiss and some new guy.

Yang prepared for a fight and saw Blake do the same in the corner of her eye. What were these three running from?

As if the universe itself heard Yang's internal question and wanted to answer, a Beowolf with a girl on it's back came over the same hill.

Wait, what?

She and Blake could only watch stumped, as the Beowolf collapsed and died halfway down the hill.

"Aw, I broke this one two, why don't they like me?" The girl asked no one in particular.

The other three noticing that the Beowolf had died, stopped and caught their breath.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?"

"Uh, are you guys alright?" Yang asked, ignoring Blake, it looked like they'd been running for a while now.

To her surprise, it was Weiss that answered.

"I." She took a deep breath, "Will be fine. When I kill, that INSANE FOOL!" 

Weiss then started to march where the girl was only to find her missing.

Yang looked at Blake who sighed and gestured to behind them where.....

" _I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"_

"Nora!" The new guy scolded.

"Sorry ren." Nora told him.

"NORA!" Weiss screamed.

"Hiya Weiss!" Nora replied cheerfully.

"WHAT, in all of remnant, possessed you to ride on a Grimm not once, but twice!" 

"Well-"

"And to do it in the middle of battle!" 

So Nora here rode on a Grimm twice? Sound fun and dangerous. She'd have try it some time. 

She also thanked her lucky stars Ruby wasn't reckless or stupid enough to try that sorta thing.

"WAAAATTTCCHHH OOOUUUTTTT!" 

"Is that your sister falling from the sky?" 

The argument between Weiss and Nora stopped as everyone looked up to see Ruby and Pyrrha falling from the sky. Presumably falling from the now circling Nevermore.

Yang had shitty lucky stars.

Pyrrha then grabbed onto Ruby as she shot Crescent Rose into the ground , reducing their momentum into a controlled decent.

"ʸᵒᵘ ˡᵉᵃᵛᵉ ˢᵃʳᵍᵉ ᵃˡᵒⁿᵉ ʷᶦᵗʰ ʳᵘᵇʸ ᶠᵒʳ ᵒⁿᵉ ˢᵉᶜᵒⁿᵈ....."

It was sure was windy today.

Yang watched with equal parts exasperation and amusement as the pair landed on the ground in heap.

"You sure know how to make an entrance sis." 

"Yang!" Ruby got herself up, "Is this the place with relics?"

"Sure is sis." Yang nodded, "Go and pick one."

Ruby's partner who Yang now identified as Pyrrha also got up. "Jaune?"

Vomit boy stood to attention, "Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha smiled at Jaune, "Glad to see your alright." She shifted sheepishly, "Sorry, for pinning you to a tree."

Jaune gave a small laugh, "It's fine, Weiss found and rescued me." He gestured to the girl in question. " Oh!, Here's your spear a back." he then handed the gladiator's javelin back to her.

"Thanks."

"Pyrrha!" Ruby called, "Would you be fine with the white, I-a guess golden knight for our relic?"

"It would be fine Ruby." Pyrrha said warmly.

Yang went over to her sister as the the duo of Weiss and Jaune chose their piece.

"So the pony huh? Good taste Rubes."

"It's called the _knight_ Yang." Ruby ground out.

Yang smirked, that was exactly the reaction she was hoping for.

Blake stepped forward, "now what?" 

Yang shrugged, "I guess it's over and we can just head back, the Grimm are all dead right?"

"CCAAAAAAWWWWW!" 

Oh right the Nevermore. She had kinda forgotten about it. 

"Son of a bitch."

* * *

It wasn't often Beacon had such interesting students as the set on his screen.

But that, Ozpin supposed, just made it all the better when interesting students did come to Beacon.

"Should we intervene?"

He looked to his fellow teacher, "no glynda, let's see how they adapt." He turned his head back to the screen, it seemed they had arrived at the ruins, he hoped that there wouldn't be too much damage, Bart had been trying to get that section of the emerald forest quarantined off for years now. No need to aggravate the man further.

He sipped his coffee as Miss Valkyrie plated distraction. She and Mr Ren had been in the same schools and classes for the most of their lives, so it was no surprise to see them partners.

What was a surprise was there future teammates, Weiss Schnee and Jaune Arc.

Miss Schnee had been a surprise, he had expected her to follow the same path as her sister and go to Atlas. So when her name crossed his desk and the parental right/consent waiver were signed (a precaution against parents pulling their child out of Beacon without the approval of said child or suing Beacon for their child's injuries), Ozpin had been left with one of the only two Schnees to ever come to Beacon. He would have to pay attention to her to find out why exactly she left Atlas.

Jaune Arc on the other hand was interesting for a different reason. He had tried to fake his way into beacon. Ozpin of course knew the transcripts were forgeries right away, but when meeting for the interview section of the application, Ozpin had gotten a gut feeling, that if he let Mr Arc in, he would do amazing things.

His gut was never wrong.

Ah, he'd gotten distracted, focusing back on the screen he watched just in time to see Miss Xiao Long jump into the beak and fire multiple rounds into it's mouth. 

"I! Hope! You're! Hungry!" 

Ah, truly the youth of today were innovate when it came to combat. 

Although only time would tell if Miss Xiao Long would be more like her mother, father or more of a unique mix of their best traits.

Ignoring Glynda's disbelieving groans, Ozpin switched the camera perspective to see all of the others barring Mr Arc, Miss Schnee and Miss Rose all firing there individual weapons at the Nevermore.

He focused in on Miss Belladonna, his agents had informed him that she was a former white fang member, the daughter of the former leaders in fact. She was obviously seeking some for of redemption at beacon, hoping to atone for her sins by becoming a huntress.

She was also hiding the fact that she was a faunus, it was unfortunate as the faunus would _always_ be accepted into Beacon. But he could also see why she would feel the need to hide it. He just wished she didn't need to.

"Think you can make the shot?"

"Hmm! Can I!" Miss schnee said confidently.

 **"** Can you?" 

**"** Of course I can!"

Miss Rose pumped Crescent Rose as Miss Schnee turned the circle from black to red and released miss rose at such a speed that the ground behind her launch cracked, rose petals flying from her ascent.

A slingshot. Inventive.

He watched as with each new shot, she got closer and closer to the trapped Grimm until her scythe caught the Nevermore's neck in its blade and caused them both to fall to the cliff wall. Miss Schnee, displaying some admirable teamwork, raised her sword and created a series of white glyphs up the wall, which Miss Rose dashed through by firing the entire way up.

Ozpin watched her climb up with the bird in her grasp until, both future huntress and Grimm cried out, Miss Rose reached the top of the cliff, circled up, fired one last shot, and tore the Nevermore's head from its shoulders in a shower of petals.

She landed beside the severed head as the body of the giant Nevermore fell lifeless to the ruins and crevice below while Miss Rose's fellow students watched in amazement.

Well, she had the same flare for spectacle as her mother. 

"Glynda."

"Yes, Ozpin?"

"Would you mind collecting Miss Rose and the others from the forest?"

"Fine." and Glynda left without another word.

He took another sip from his coffee.

The final one of his students was Miss Ruby Rose. All these years later and he still felt guilty over her mothers death.

Indeed it was this that had lead to his guilt on Miss Rose's current condition.

Schizophrenia.

Undoubtedly caused by a mix of Miss Rose's visit to her mothers gave all those years ago and unresolved/unprocessed grief over her mothers death. Miss Rose's condition was ultimately his fault.

Still it was not guilt that had caused him to let Miss Rose into Beacon two years early.

It was the goodness of her heat and the pureness of her soul, a robbery had taken place and Miss Rose didn't so much as hesitate to stop it.

People like that were in short supply these days.

Of course her silver eye's were also a factor, but a very minor one.

Only time would tell if Miss Rose was up to the huntress's life. But even those with mental illness could be great hunters and huntresses. 

Beacon and Ozpin would _never_ discriminate on something like that.

He went for another sip of his coffee only to find it empty.

Unfortunate.

Well, he had to head back to his office anyway, it was time for the worst part of the year.

Naming the first year teams.

He could only hope that none of the names would be stretching it out _too_ far this year.

* * *

"Weiss Schnee. Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Nora Valkyrie. you four retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team Salmon, led by....Weiss Schnee!" ozpin called out.

"go Weiss!" Called out Ruby as she grinned and clapped, sure she seemed crabby and a little unpleasant, but ruby found herself liking Weiss anyway, it was probably her awesome combat skirt.

"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Pyrrha Nikos. Ruby Rose. Yang Xiao Long." Her team walked up to the stage and took their place. Ruby's trio of friends right behind them.

"Saving the best for last huh?" Sarge asked rhetorically.

"The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team Raspberry, led by....Ruby Rose." Ozpin finished.

Ruby's smile got wider than she thought it could ever be, as the room clapped. 

Yang put a hand on her shoulder. 

"I'm so proud of you!"

pyrrha did the same to the other, "You'll be a good leader ruby." Her partner told her. 

Blake agreed, "Yeah what she said."

"Good job solider, only fifteen and leading a red team of your own!" Sarge made a wiping a tear away gesture, "You're making me proud."

"Everything will be great forever!" Caboose told her and Ruby had to agree. She looked to Wash.

"You're doing good ruby, doing good."

Ruby was grinning so hard it hurt.

This. Would be. The best year. In all of beacon history. Ever.

And Ruby couldn't be happier.

* * *

_Somewhere in an alley in Vale._

His head fucking hurt, it felt like all of his bones were broken, but he was still _alive_. _That_ was _their_ mistake.

Taking a look at his surroundings, he found that he couldn't recognise any of them.

"Where the _fuck_ am I?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the latest chapter, I hope everyone enjoy's this.   
> This issue of partners and teams was something I flip flopped on when planning and writing, but decided to change up from canon, cause what would the point of making this fanfic be, if it didn't deviate from cannon?  
> I hope i got the characterisations of Washington, Ruby, Yang and Ozpin right. As well as the others of course.  
> All and any constructive criticisms, ideas and comments on the story are always welcome.  
> I hope that everyone is keeping safe during in the quarantine/lock-down. And a new chapter will be out soon.  
> Till then i will catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	7. Aftermath, Before Biology.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which team RPBY enjoys their first day at beacon.

It was exactly 06:30 when Pyrrha woke up. 

She didn't need to check the time to know this, as it had been routine for her ever sense she competed in her first tournament all those years ago.

Her life before she entered those tournaments seemed like it belonged to a completely different person. 

A person who liked waking up at one in the afternoon after staying up at night.

A person who loved hanging out with her friends. 

A person who had a simple life.

Before she won the mistral regional tournament at age 13.

Before she became famous.

Before she lost all her friends due to said fame.

Before she lost a normal life.

Still beacon, she told herself, would be different.

Here her fame wouldn't matter. She would make new friends and live the life of a huntress.

Still some things never change.

So awake at 06:30 on the dot.

As she opened her eyes, Pyrrha got up and slowly looked at the clock on the wall.

06:30

Well she was probably the first one up so it would be best to hit the showers. 

The team had been exhausted by time they had reached their new room so not much had been done apart from putting all of the luggage in the corner to be unpacked.

Figuring that it would be good idea Pyrrha pulled herself up out the bed and started to make her way to the showers only to notice something strange.

She wasn't the only person awake.

Her new partner and team leader Ruby was doing push ups at the foot of her bed, still in her own pyjamas, while listening to music on her headphones. 

"Ruby?"

Her team leader didn't hear her.

Going for a more direct approach she tapped Ruby's shoulder, causing the team leader to jump right out of her skin and roll onto her back.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby pulled down her headphones. "Don't scare me like that!" 

Pyrrha gave a small chuckle, "Sorry." She apologised.

"What are you doing up?" She followed up.

"Just some exercises." Ruby explained sheepishly, "Usually it'd just be a run but well i haven't really explore Beacon yet, so I thought why not push ups.?"

"Keeping in shape is admirable." but Pyrrha had a concern, "But isn't this a little early?"

"Nah, it's fine" Ruby wave away, "I've done it for a few yes now, ever sense met a- 

Then Ruby cut herself off which only ignited Pyrrha's curiosity. 

"Met who?"

"He was a-free-i mean a sol-" Ruby took a moment to collect herself. "He was an war vet, he really pounded into me, the idea of constant training and an early rise."

"B'sides i only got up half an hour ago." Ruby finished with a mumble.

"Alright Ruby, would you like to take a shower now?" Pyrrha asked.

"Nah, you can go first Pyrrha, I wanna finish my exercise anyway."

Nodding Pyrrha went to her first suitcase and extracted one of her uniforms before going to the bathroom and locking the door.

Going over to the shower at a leisurely pace, she fiddled with the knobs until she found a warm setting.

Putting on the water, Pyrrha set out her uniform and got ready for her shower.

The shower had turned out to be pretty decent as far as showers went.

Now fully dressed and ready for the day, Pyrrha exited the bathroom, only to have Ruby to immediately rush in past Pyrrha with a quick:

"Scusemegottago!"

She probably needed the bathroom.

Taking a look at the room she could see that Blake was now awake and sitting on her bed.

"Good morning."

"Morning." came Blake's reply.

"Sleep well?"

"Fine, you?"

"Pretty well."

An awkward silence ensued. They haven't really interacted much have they?

Time to change that.

Leaning on one of the desks, Pyrrha searched for a good icebreaker. 

"So, which academy did you attend before coming to Beacon?"

Blake's reply was instant, "I didn't."

Blake didn't offer any further explanation and the tone indicated she wasn't going to offer any. 

So it was probably a sore subject. Right. Moving on swiftly.

"Do you have any hobbies?"

Blake considered this for a moment.

"I like to read."

Pyrrha smiled at that, common ground.

"So do I." Pyrrha told her, "Although I haven't gotten much chance to do so in recent years."

Between her parents drive for constant training, the tournaments, dealing with fans/sponsors and needing near perfect grades at Sanctum, Pyrrha never really had the time for reading anything other than her textbooks anymore.

"Because of the tournaments?" Blake asked perceptively.

"Something like that." Pyrrha said in an uncomfortable tone.

"Right."

Further conversation was ended with Ruby leaving the bathroom.

"Good morning!"

Ruby was also in her school uniform with the addition of her cloak being pinned to the blazer. Neat.

Wordlessly Blake took her uniform and slipped into the bathroom.

"Are you having a good morning Pyrrha?"

"Yes Ruby, have you?"

"Yep!" 

Then Ruby turned her head in the direction of Yang, who was still seemingly asleep, and a mischievous grin grew on her face. The younger girl then went into her luggage, searching for something as Pyrrha watched curiously.

Giving a noise of victory, Ruby pulled a small silver whistle from her suitcase. Then she immediately went over to her sister's bed.

Oh dear.

Ruby pulled her head back and got ready to blow into whistle.

"Ruby?"

The young leader froze.

"Yes Yang?"

"You weren't about to try and wake me up with that whistle, were you?"

"Noooooo?"

"Good, cause i'd hate for you to be late to class, because I threw you out the window."

The younger girl put the whistle down, "Well you still need to get up."

"Fine." Yang pushed aside her sheets and yawned as she left her bed.

"Mornin' Pyrrha."

"Good morning Yang."

"Where's Blake?" Yang yawned.

"Here." The girl in question said as she left the bathroom.

Ruby grinned enthusiastically. "Now that everyone's awake we can do the first order of business!"

When no one asked what, Ruby elaborated.

"Unpacking!"

After Yang had gotten changed, the unpacking of everything had gotten well and truly under way.

Most of the stuff was found a place without much fan fair until Ruby tried to claim one of the desks as her own. 

"Ruby no."

"But Yaannnnngggg."

"No."

"Whats the matter?" Pyrrha asked.

It seemed like Ruby had put a massive sack on on of the two desks, she had no idea what was in it.

Yang turned to her, "Ruby wants to take one of the desks, for her stupid project." she said gesturing to said desk.

"My project is not stupid!" Ruby complained, "It is of _vital_ importance!" 

"What is the project?" Pyrrha asked, from the corner oh her eye she saw Blake stop sorting her books to look on.

Ruby brightened and with a an attempt at showman's flair she said, "Allow me to present, the future of....stuff! The one, the only-"

"It's a robot." Yang cut in.

"Yang!"

"A robot?" Blake asked

"Yep" Ruby then opened the sack, to reveal a torso with two arms and a head but no legs. It didn't look much like the Atlesian Knight-130 models she would sometimes see when visitors from atlas were at the tournaments.

Instead this robot looked more like a proper human in body armour without the legs.

"You built this? Ruby that's very impressive." Pyrrha told her partner.

Ruby responded by blushing as red as her name.

"Why build a robot?" Blake asked as she wandered over to get a closer look. "It doesn't look like any of the atlas ones."

"Nah, it's a friends design i'm following." Ruby explained "And i'm building him for.....fun i guess."

"Well I have no problem if you want to keep it here." Pyrrha told her

"Me too, if you can keep me up to date on your progress."

"You like robots Blake?" Yang asked.

"Call it a passing interest."

Yang nodded. "Fine. You can keep it here, but you have make sure there are _no_ fires this time."

Fires?

"Fires?" Blake reflected Pyrrha's own thoughts. 

"Yeah..........Ruby near burned down our home at patch roughly four times." Yang informed them, "And she _did_ burn down the Signal workshop and armoury."

Pyrrha blinked, _that_ sounded like a hazard.

"It was an accident." Ruby mumbled sheepishly. "But it won't happen again!"

" _That_ ,is what you said the second time." Yang said drily.

Following that the unpacking ran smoothly with one minor hiccup.

The beds had ended up in a jumble in the centre of the room.

"We need to rearrange."

"It is a bit cramped."

"Maybe we should ditch some of our stuff..."

"ᵒʳ ʷᵉ ᶜᵒᵘˡᵈ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵇᵘⁿᵏᵇᵉᵈˢᵎ"

Who said that?

Ruby grinned, "Great idea! _We_ could make bunk-beds!"

"But no one said-" Blake was cut off by Ruby, "What do you guys think?"

"Sounds awesome."

"It does seem efficient."

"I've always wanted bunk-beds as a kid." Pyrrha told her.

With that they got to jury rigging a set of bunk-beds using rope for Pyrrha's and Ruby's and books for Blake and Yang's. 

Now Pyrrha's bed was simply on the ground on the left side of the room, Blake's bed was next to her books, which are used to raise Yang's bed over it by placing the novels on the posts while Ruby's is hanging from ropes on the ceiling over pyrrha's own bed with a blanket used as a tent over it.

"I'm not sure the rope will hold." Pyrrha told her partner.

"Eh, we can just get some stronger ropes and strengthening dust over the weekend." Yang replied for Ruby. "Now we have to get to class."

"Whats first?" Blake asked.

Ruby got out her time table, "first it's....Grimm studies with professor port, from 09:00 to 11:30, then-"

Pyrrha looked at the clock in horror, "Ruby, it's 08:50!" 

The rest of the team shared her horror,.

"We're going to be late!" 

With that the whole team rushed out of the dorms to class.

Looks like she wouldn't be having breakfast today.

* * *

When team RPBY entered class just on time the red and blues weren't with them.

Much to Sarge's _very_ vocal displeasure.

"Come on Wash, we have to be there for our future red." Sarge argued. It was time's like this that Wash wished that that Tucker or Donut was here instead of Sarge.

"I've already told you Sarge." He reexplained for the 3rd time this morning. "We are not going to ruby's first class with each teacher, so that she can make a good impression _without_ you two distracting her."

"Hogwash." The red leader dismissed, "I have never once distracted Ruby in any of her classes."

"You got her to argue with her last mechanical teacher at Signal for over 5 hours." Wash pointed out. Those were 5 hours he _really_ wanted back.

"He deserved it!" Sarge bellowed "Who ever heard of things like _using the schematics_ or _not_ putting a bomb in your robots gut."

Wash was glad he convinced Ruby that, _that_ was a bad idea for Lopez 3.0.

"It doesn't matter." he cut off sarge before he could rant about robotics. "we are leaving ruby alone for now and finding both beacons library and gym."

"And the cafeteria." Pipped up caboose, "Then we can get ice-cream!" three years and Caboose _still_ had trouble with the unable to interact with the rest of the world concept.

"Fine." grumbled Sarge, "But we also have to find the armoury! and see all of those advanced weapons."

"Deal."

With that the trio went up and down the corridors passing a couple of different classrooms and the odd student that had the morning free.

When they eventually found the library Wash was impressed.

It was big and seemed to have rows and rows of books (paper ones not the modern digital ones found back at home), on top of several computers.

It was certainly better than the collage library David had went to a lifetime ago.

Beacons gym was even more impressive, on par and possibly surpassing the gym at project freelancer and blowing the chorus military gym out of the water.

It had two dozen treadmills, a room dedicated to punching bags, a track the size of thee football stadiums and an Olympic length swimming pool. And that was just the first room out of three. 

But while not as grand as the other two rooms Wash liked the armoury best.

The three space marines looked at the rows apon rows of weapons, some seemed unassuming like what seemed to be a purse, to more extravagant weapons like a quadruple barrelled rocket launcher. 

Sarge sat at one of the many workbenches and was looking at the large amount of tools.

"You know." Sarge started at length, "With these tools we could have Tres Point 0 done by the end of the month."

""Yes, but we need to get him insured." Caboose informed Sarge, "Do we have him on an extended warranty?" 

"Of course not blue! Warranty's are nothing but lies sold by the corporations to make a quick buck."

"I think it would be a good idea." 

"You would you big blue idiot." 

Tuning out the conversation Wash wandered to the edge of the armoury to inspect the weapons there, when someone entered the room.

Or rather _two_ did.

"Alright everyone remember here they set their weapons?" 

"Yes Coco, I remember where they set their weapons."

It was two females, one human one faunus. 

The human was wearing a very fashionable clothes that gave wash the impression that she was some sort of 'fashionista' as Donut once put it. She even had sunglasses and a dark brown beret.

The faunus however was wearing the standard beacon uniform and was a rabbit faunus as evidenced by her large rabbit ears.

"Good, grab Fox and Yatsuhashi's, i'll grab mine and yours."

The faunus crossed her arms as she went over to one of the rows. "I don't understand why your grabbing my weapon Coco." She grumbled, in a British accent that reminded him far too much of Wyoming, "I have remedial history with the first years after lunch."

"Because Velvet." Coco told her "We will _also_ be sparing after you leave class."

"Right." Velvet grumbled as she took up two weapons from the row. "Well it seems the maintenance fellows have done good job on our weapons."

Ah maintenance, it did strike Wash as odd that all of the weapons were left here over the summer.

Coco examined the purse, "They better have."

With that the duo left and Wash called over Sarge and Caboose.

"Alright time to leave." He told them in an don't-argue-with-me-if-you-value-your-life tone.

Of course Sarge took that as a challenge. "Why?"

"Because we promised Ruby we'd meet her at lunch and it's almost eleven fifty five."

"Ah, fair point." Sarge conceded.

"Can we get ice cream Agent Washington?"

"Sure Caboose."

By the time they reached the cafeteria, team RPBY was already stuffing their face's, sitting next to team SALN.

Pyrrha and Jaune looked to be in a conversation while Yang was regaling everyone else (excepting Ruby who was stuffing her face in) with a story.

"Then I said now that's a Katana!"

"Then what?" Nora asked with the enthusiasm of a puppy. "Did you break his legs?"

Yang grinned, "Better, I punched him up so high be went up through two floors and past the ceiling."

Rolling his eyes under his helmet, he took of said helmet and sat next to Ruby, who was stuffing her face in strawberries.

"You know if you keep doing that, you'll have to run 4 laps in the morning to work off the weight."

"Ruby's head snapped to attention. 

"Wash!" She said with a full mouth, then looking and spotting Sarge and Caboose who had joined in at listening to Yang's story.

"Which one is this?" he asked, "The one about the alley mugging or the club?"

"Neither, this is the one about Katana-man" 

Wash remembered that, a vigilante mistook Yang for a mugger. It didn't end well for him.

"Well we've found the library, gym and armoury."

Ruby nodded "Cool."

"How was class?"

"It was fine...." Ruby shifted in her seat, "Well it seems interesting, but all we did was listen to the professors story." Then she brightened, "But then we watched Weiss fight a Boarbatusk, which was awesome."

"Well whats next on the agenda?"

"History with proffes- sorry _Doctor_ Oobleck."

Wash nodded and continued the conversation, unaware of the secret faunus that was listening to half the conversation.

* * *

All in all, Blake's first day attending Beacon was better than expected.

The classes showed some promise. Well _history_ showed some promise, while the teacher talked so fast his sentences became a single really long word, he seemed to know his stuff and beyond.

Grimm biology had started with promise but Professor Port had quickly turned it into a story about him that only had marginal relevance to the subject.

Furthermore her teammates all seemed to be pretty decent people. However _seemed_ and _are_ , were two different things. 

Her partner Yang, _seemed_ to be the rowdy, very much extroverted type. The type of person that always spoke their mind, regardless of what others thought. 

Pyrrha Nikos _seemed_ to be a former tournament fighter who seemed very polite and noble, always willing to do the right thing.

Ruby Rose _seemed_ to be the team leader who got in early, an apparent prodigy, she seemed to be childish and native, with a idolised view of huntresses and hunters. 

That is what her team _seemed_ to be. 

But things were rarely what they seemed.

Blake knew this well. after all, who would think the introverted human that liked books, was in fact a faunus running from her past as a former terrorist?

Still, at least she was making progress at figuring out who her team leader really was as a person.

Ruby had seemingly had a conversation with someone else at lunch, presumably the same he was talking to on the airship to beacon. While she found no _obvious_ ear pieces on the girl, Blake knew it was probably a subtle one.

Still, if Ruby was really an Atlas operative, she still hadn't slipped up in her cover.

If Ruby really _wasn't_ a secret Atlas operative and everything was genuine.....

Then Blake would be very much concerned about the mental state of her team leader.

It was now the end of the evening, Pyrrha and Yang had disappeared to the beacon gym and Ruby had only come back from exploring beacon half an hour ago.

Blake herself had just finished 'the man with two souls' after reading it for the past few hours.

Getting up from her bed where she had been lying while she read, Blake went over to Ruby who was working on her robot.

That was another point in her 'Ruby is a secret Atlas operative' theory. 

Of course this could only be Ruby being an eccentric prodigy.

And Blake knew that her theory had yet to account for Yang, who was apparently Ruby's half sister. But with enough time she was sure she could find an explanation.

"Ruby."

"Oh, hi Blake." Ruby said as she looked up from the robot, she wasn't wearing goggles, which was concerning as Ruby was also holding a small blow torch.

"How's the robot building going?" Blake asked, following it up with, "Shouldn't you be wearing some goggles?"

"It's going fine." Ruby told her, making a gesture with her unoccupied arm, "I'm just working on adding some legs."

"You should be wearing goggles."

"ʸᵒᵘ ˢʰᵒᵘˡᵈ ˡᶦˢᵗᵉⁿ ᵗᵒ ʰᵉʳ ʳᵘᵇʸ, ᴵ'ᵛᵉ ᵗᵒˡᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵃᵐᵉ ᶠᵒʳ ʸᵉᵃʳˢ."

Ruby shifted in an embarrassed manner. "Well I keep meaning to, but...." Ruby made a 'you know' gesture with the hand she held the small blow torch in.

This caused Blake to jump back, "Ruby!"

"Sorry!" Ruby then turned off the blowtorch and set it down. "Are you alright Blake!?"

"Fine." The torch never touched her, but Ruby's actions were equal parts negligent and dangerous.

"You _really_ need to be safer when doing work like this." Blake told her team leader, "This is probably how those fires started."

"Most of the fires are from when I worked on the head." Ruby said embarrassed while she started to put away her tools, she looked to be done for the night.

"But i will get those safety supplies in vale on the weekend!" Ruby declared, before frowning. "If i don't forget again."

Before she could think about it, Blake told Ruby, "I could help going to vale with you on Saturday." 

Wait, why did she offer that? 

"Really?" Ruby asked with the enthusiasm of a young puppy.

''Ok Blake.'' She told herself, ''Here's your chance to back out.'' But unfortunately, Ruby looked positively _adorable_ at the moment.

"Sure, I need to pick up some new books anyway."

She always had trouble saying no to cute things.

Ah well, this was prime opportunity to spend time with her team leader and figure her out.

"Awesome!"

And at least Ruby was looking forward to it already.

* * *

"Are you alright?"

He groaned where he lay on the ground. He must've passed out.

Opening his eyes he saw an old man standing over him, in the alleyway he had collapsed in.

"Fine." He ground out.

Of course old and ugly was a bleeding heart. "You look terrible."

Well he had to give him that. His armour was completely shattered and ruined.

Turns out thousand foot drops were _not_ conductive to a good clean armour.

"Allow me to help you." Old and ugly pulled him to his feet. Ii'll bring you home to my wife, her semblance is healing, you'll be on your feet in no time."

What the fuck was a semblance? Ah well it didn't matter.

Time to put on the charm. "I wouldn't want to impose." He said weakly. 

Much to his immense frustration and rage it was a weakness that _wasn't_ fake.

"No problem son. none at all." The old man looked at a him with a curiosity, that he couldn't wait to murder off his face.

"You have a name?"

He did. But which one to give?

He settled on one that he hadn't used in a long time. It wasn't his preferred name, but it would do.

"The name's Isaac." He paused for effect. "Isaac Gates."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here's the latest chapter, i hope everyone enjoys.
> 
> Not much to note about this one, only that trying to write Blake is harder that i thought it would be.
> 
> As always, all constructive criticisms, comments, ideas and reviews are always welcome.
> 
> next time we you can look forward to some views and input from Weiss and her team, and more.
> 
> till next time, catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	8. Words Of Wisdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which two team leaders get advice from wise(?) old men.

Five weeks into beacon and Weiss schnee was doubting her decision to enter said academy.

When she had been made team leader Weiss had expected that things would go quite smoothly. it didn't turn out quite like that.

The first problem was her teammates. While Jaune and Ren were decent and willing to study, Nora Valkyrie was an energetic child in Weiss's opinion. Unable to focus on anything for more than a minute, and she had antics that made her clearly unsuited for life at beacon. Worse was her influence on Ren, the best of Weiss's teammates, as she would often make him take her side in arguments rather than Weiss's. This was unacceptable. As team leader they should both automatically be folding to and trusting her opinion and following _her_ orders above all else.

Secondly was her partner. He had been passable and unoffensive in the initiation, but when they finally entered beacon proper, he proved himself incompetent, both academically and in combat. He had seemingly never picked up a book before entering beacon, even _Ruby_ who was skipped forward by two years was doing better with her tests than him.

Watching Jaune in combat was also a painful experience. His form was sloppy and his technique nonexistent. His only saving grace was his massive aura, second only to Ruby's (who had enough aura for three additional fully trained huntsmen), that allowed him to tank a good bit of damage.

Needless to say she had snapped at her teammates a few times over the past five weeks.

This Tuesday proved a great example for this.

Weiss could only sit in embarrassment as she watched jaune be pummelled by Cardin Winchester of all people.

Jaune had just been sent to the ground by Cardin delivering a decent jab to Jaune's gut. A buzzer rang out and Weiss checked her scroll. Jaune's aura was in the red. Again.

Winchester backed off and Jaune got roughly back on his feet.

"Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red." professor goodwitch told them. "In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match."

The professor turned to Jaune. ""Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now, would we?"

Those word filled Weiss with something akin to anger and irritation. Weeks in and her partner still hadn't improved. 

How was she supposed to cope with a partner like this?

"Remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away! It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practising! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!"

The announcement from Professor Goodwitch calmed Weiss's temper somewhat.

The Vytal festival and tournament was something Weiss _really_ wanted to win. 

But she knew that it wouldn't be easy, as she would most likely be in conversation with team RPBY who had the best combat rankings in first year.

For good reason as, the leader Ruby, had enough aura for herself and an additional 3 huntresses which was combined with some truly great combat techniques that made it clear _why_ she was currently at the top of first year combat rankings. Of course ruby's partner Pyrrha Nikos, was a very close second in said combat rankings, being a famous tournament fighter and undefeated in the mistral regional tournament. Yang was the equivalent of a tank and wrecking-ball combined and Blake was a fantastic support that knew where and when she was needed.

So going against their team at any stage would not be easy.

Still, it would be near _impossible_ if her team wasn't ready by may at the end of the school year, when everything took place.

Spying her partner, still on the floor of the arena, Weiss formulated a plan. She was going to have a _talk_ with her partner.

"Jaune!"

The boy in question jumped at his named being suddenly called out. It was satisfying to see, after having waited for the last 20 minutes for him to leave the showers and get dressed.

"Oh! hey Weiss." Jaune said nervously, "Whats up?"

Taking extra care to look him dead in the eyes, Weiss walked over to her partner until she was right next to him. It was unfortunate that she had to look up to him to maintain eye contact but she kept it none the less.

"You and I need to talk about your, sub-par abilities." Weiss informed him.

Jaune gave a nervous laugh before answering, "sorry Weiss but i promised pyrrha i'd meet her after class." as he said this, his eyes darted from left to right like he was looking for an escape.

"fine." Weiss said before launching into her amended demands.

"Tonight, you and I are going to have a talk alone in our dorm room. There we will be discussing your, sub-par and lacklustre, _disappointing_ performance, over these past few weeks. Understood?" Weiss told him, channelling all of her frustration and anger into a _very_ dangerous tone.

The result was a rather miserable looking Jaune.

"Alright."

"You may go." Weiss told him coldly.

Jaune walked away in a rather dejected fashion, that made Weiss slightly uncomfortable. She didn't like seeing it but she had done what was good for the team and now she would get some answers.

Assured that she had done the right thing, Weiss took some self assured steps to the gardens only to be stopped by a familiar voice.

"You know, there are times you remind me of you father."

"Headmaster Ozpin!" Weiss blurted out in surprise, recovering for the shock she said, "An- a pleasure to see you sir. What brings you here this fine evening?"

"The simple pleasure of a walk Miss Schnee." Ozpin said enigmatically. The old headmaster took a sip for his coffee.

"I see." Weiss replied before hesitantly asking, "What do you mean about my father?"

"You remind me of him sometimes." He took a sip again and started a slow walk that Weiss joined him on. "In the way you act and react. In the way you both talk, and most of all, in the way you treat your subordinates."

"I am not my father." Weiss told him, unable to stop, the bitter tone that came from her mouth.

"No." Ozpin agreed, "But you are his daughter. And like it or not, you _will_ have picked up habits from him."

Weiss was silent as she considered what he had told her.

"Can I ask you a question, Miss Schnee?" Ozpin suddenly asked.

Taken aback, Weiss could only reply, "Of course."

"Why come to Beacon instead of Atlas? Where you would have had a far better time of dealing with, becoming a huntress. Why leave?"

Weiss remained silent as she considered what to tell the headmaster. Lie or truth? 

Knowing better than to lie to the wisest person in Remnant, Weiss told the truth.

"To get away from my father." She paused to take a breath before continuing "As far i can remember, I have been in my fathers shadow. From day one, I listened and hung onto every word he said. then at age 12, I started to realise all of his..... negative traits. the morally grey practices, his controlling nature and his....... racist attitudes to the faunus. So by age thirteen, I vowed to make things better. If I had taken a job in Atlas or joined it's academy, it wouldn't have changed anything. I would _still_ be under his thumb. I want to make things better as, my father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it."

Weiss took a deep breath as she finished her small speech to Ozpin. She looked at him, waiting for a reaction.

He seemed to contemplate on her speech for an unbearably long time as they stopped at a railing at a cliff, that overlooked vale.

"Of all the schnees I have met, you are by far the most tolerable and certainly one of the more moral." Ozpin finally said. "You have noble goals Miss Schnee, but it _will_ be a long road."

Ozpin turned his head to look Weiss in the eyes. 

"Your road will be long, but you do not have to travel it alone. Your friends, teammates and partner will all be there for you to help you down, it's long and winding path." Ozpin took a long sip form his coffee. "But the road _will_ be lonely if you travel down your current path, you will need to find your own style of leadership, different from your fathers."

"I am NOT leading, like my father." Weiss cut in angrily. She was better than him. She did not resort to the moral shortcuts that he did.

"You react with anger at criticisms of your leadership, you hate when your teammates take the initiative out of your hand, you tolerate no attempts at fun and you act cold to all those you consider, bellow you." Ozpin looked back into the distance. "You are your fathers daughter."

Weiss was speechless as her thoughts ran wild. She wasn't like that as a leader. Was she?

Her mind jumped back to previous instances of her interacting with her team. Criticising Jaune like her father would do to her. Blowing up at Nora for pushing off her homework like he would do to Weiss when her grades slipped. The passive aggressive comments she made to Ren when he tried to talk to her, Just like the ones he would make to board members and interns.

Her breathing slowed as she came to a realisation.

_I am acting just like father._

Ozpin gave a knowing smile. "Do not worry yourself or blame yourself miss schnee, this is a learned behaviour." Ozpin turned away. 

"then what can i do to change?" she said suddenly, she had to know what she should do to change.

"All i can tell you is that, leaders instil in their people, a hope for success and a belief in themselves." ozpin paused, "Positive leaders will _always_ empower their team to accomplish their goals."

With this Ozpin walked away. Leaving Weiss with conflicted and self loathing thoughts, that _she_ could be just like _him_.

She stumbled mindlessly to a nearby bench, not thinking about the action itself.

She had a lot to think about.

* * *

Elsewhere in beacon, Ruby Rose was trying to study.

This wasn't an unusual occurrence from Sarge's point of view. 

Ruby was often hitting the books to catch up in her two year jump from signal.

What was unusual was the fact that she had been looking at the same page and subsequent homework question for the past hour.

Obviously something was wrong.

Figuring that he was the most qualified to deal with this, Sarge pulled himself up to Ruby's bunk bed where she was currently studying.

It was hard work, but soon he was up in a sitting position next to the young leader. 

Ruby only spared him a small glance and a quite "Hey." Before returning to her book.

"Sooooo." He said as casually as possible, "Whats the matter lil' lady?"

"Nothing." Came the muttered response.

Well at least the muttering was normal, as the rest of her team was currently in the room, but absorbed in their own tasks.

Yang was reading of those comic books, the kind Simmons and Grif would read together when off duty.

Blake was also ready, but this time one of those regular paper books. Sarge had one or two of those back home, mostly military history. 

Finally Pyrrha was also studying at the only available desk.

Sarge now contemplated Ruby's response. Nothing huh? 

Sure.

And Donut was going to marry an exotic dancer named Tiffany and have twelve children.

"Tell me the truth Ruby." Sarge told her, going for the direct approach, as was red team standard protocol. "Somethin's obviously bothering you. Just tell me."

Ruby sighed and put down her book.

"Just this stupid assignment from professor peach." Ruby explained, "I don't understand more than half of what this stupid book is saying." Ruby finished with another sigh.

Ah so that was the problem. looks like she was still playing catch up then.

"Honestly, i'm behind in every class that isn't combat." Ruby continued, "It kinda makes me want to scream and tear out my hair or something."

"Well." Sarge began at length. "Seems to me like you are looking at this from the wrong angle."

"Huh?"

"You need to get help from your team." Sarge told her bluntly, no need to sugar coat it like a dirty blue.

"No, Sarge that is a terrible idea." Ruby whispered to him. "I'm the leader, I can't burden my team with my own problems."

Ruby whispered the next bit so quietly Sarge could barley hear her. 

"That would make me a- a- a _bad leader_."

Ruby looked absolutely terrified at the concept. Sarge blamed Wash for such a _blue team_ reaction and way of thinking.

Taking off his helmet to become more personable, (and show off his amazing beard that had developed under his helmet), he looked at the future of red team and began to dispense his wisdom.

"Firstly, knock off the idea that you are a bad leader. You are one of the finest commanders I have seen in my many years serving the red army!"

Ruby nodded.

"Secondly, asking our team for help is an inherent part of the red team experience! Why do you think, I stuck with the same troops for years on end?" He finished rhetorically.

"Good company?" Ruby answered anyway.

"Of course not!" Sarge shook his head, that was only a small (minuscule) part of it. "I kept Simmons around for his incredible hacking skills, as I was never good with the numbers and such, Donut was there for his incredible arm, he could hit any target with his grenades. And finally Lopez was there, to be a fellow _competent_ solider to work with."

"What about Grif?"

"He made excellent cannon fodder." And kept Simmons happy for some bizarre reason, but Sarge wasn't touching that topic. "The point is, while you can be a good leader on your own, the best leaders take help from their teams. got it?"

Ruby looked away and considered what he had said. She then sighed again. Was it healthy for someone to sigh that much?

"I don't want to be a burden." Was all she whispered.

"And you aren't." Sarge argued, "Just give it a try if nothing else, if your team is one worth it's salt, they'll help ya."

"Alright." Ruby muttered, "Alright."

It seems that his expert advice had rejuvenated Ruby as she rolled off her bed and landed gracefully on the floor with all of her usual enthusiasm. 

"Hey Pyrrha." She told her partner as she went next to her.

"Oh hi Ruby, whats up?" Pyrrha turned her head and smiled at the team leader. 

"I-a was wondering, would y-you mind if- I mean could you uh, help me with my dust homework?" Ruby said nervously, twisting the hem of her skirt.

"Of course! pull up a chair, I am doing the same homework, we can do it together." Pyrrha said with a smile.

Ruby brightened and got the other chair from her work station, before going to get her stuff from where she left it on her bed.

As she collected her work, Ruby whispered a quiet, "thank you."

"Don't mention it." He chuckled as he put his helmet back on. 

"Don't mention it."

* * *

Weiss was late to her own meeting with Jaune.

So it was of little surprise when she entered the dorm room to find him sitting on his bed.

He looked nervous, probably because she had kept him waiting for over an hour now.

She didn't mean to, but what Ozpin had said to her.....

Suffice to say it had kept her thinking, she even missed dinner and was starving as a result.

So when she entered the room, she took a seat on her bed opposite Jaune's. Keeping careful to avoid looking him in his eyes, Weiss asked him "where's Ren and Nora?"

The quietness of her voice surprised both Jaune and herself. 

"Down in the kitchens." Jaune answered, "Nora wanted pancakes."

Well that explained it. If there was one thing Weiss had learned about her maniac teammate, it was that she had an obsession with pancakes. Considering that, that factoid was all she knew about Nora, said something about her leadership. 

And Weiss didn't like it.

they sat there for a while, in silence. it was a very awkward silence, with neither side knowing what to say to break it.

The big speech Weiss had prepared earlier today was now a forgotten in the back of her mind, its composition now reminding her uncomfortably of one her father once gave her. In it's place, she had nothing.

Then to her surprise, Jaune spoke.

"Are you alright?" He asked, voice full of concern.

She looked up, Jaune had concern on his face, concern for her.

After how she had dismissed him, time and time again, ignored his attempts at conversation, he was still concerned for her.

"I'm fine." She lied to his face.

The ice broken, she decided to go to the point of this meeting, to remove his concern over her.

"Why are you failing Jaune?" 

The question threw him through a loop, his face going threw a range of emotions, from shock, to fear, to sadness, to worry, back to fear, before settling on resignation.

"I guess this was inevitable." Jaune gave a resigned half chuckle, "I w-was never really that good at anything."

Weiss said nothing, letting him say it in his own time.

"I-y-ya see, I li-lied." He said miserably, "On my application, I lied, I forged it, and kinda hoped it would get through."

As he finished he braced for an inevitable burst of anger and rage to come from Weiss, one yelling match to end them all.

It never came.

Weiss was still absorbing the news. Her partner had cheated and lied his way into beacon. 

She wasn't sure what to make of the news. So, she asked the only question that mattered.

"Why?"

Jaune, considered this for a moment, before launching into his reasoning.

"Cause _this_ is always what I've wanted to be." Jaune looked away, from her. "My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors. They were all heroes. I wanted to be one, too. I was just never good enough." He took a deep breath, "I wanted to help people, I was never going to do that at home."

He looked to her for a reaction.

But Weiss was lost on how to react.

On one hand, he had cheated his way into beacon, probably cheating some other student out of their place.

On the other, his reasons for doing so, being a hero, helping out his fellow man, wanting to live up to his family.

She could relate to those reasons. She knew what that was like.

Still......what should she do?

She had no idea what Father would do.

She had no idea what Klein would do.

She had no idea what Winter would do.

That, she realised was the problem. She needed to stop think about what others would do.

She needed to think about what Weiss Schnee would do.

So, without thinking, she acted, saying the first thought that came to her mind.

"I will train you." Weiss told Jaune, with a strength that surprised him and her in equal measure. "Every other night we _will_ meet on the roof, and I _will_ train you so that you can be better." Weiss continued, her resolve strengthening with every word.

Jaune seem to be floor for his part, "But I- uh- you don't nee-" 

"Shut up." Weiss told him, "You are going to except my help without complaint, and you will get better. Understood?"

"W- why are you helping me?" Jaune asked.

"Well you _are_ my partner." Weiss informed him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And I _cannot_ let my partner fail after all."

"Thank you."

"Your welcome." After a moments thought, she added, "Dolt."

* * *

_Meanwhile, in the forests of Mistral_

The forest was peaceful, well as peaceful as a forest full of grim and miles away from civilisation could be. Then in a most violent manner, a flash of light appeared in the middle of a clearing. It was brief, but what it left behind, the inhabitants of the forest would remember for a life time.

A lone Beowolf was the first on scene as it sensed a great deal of negativity coming from the clearing, which often meant food and prey.

What it found was neither. 

In the clearing was a lone human in armour, lying face down on the ground.

With a small amount of caution, it went over and sniffed the prone figure, then without warning, the figure hand gripped it's throat and crushed it, giving the Beowolf no time to react, as it crumbled into dust.

The Grimm dealt with, the solider got up and examined their surroundings.

Where on earth where they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this chapter was meant to come out a lot sooner than it did.   
> the main reason for this was a struggle to portray Weiss's character struggle and development, which i would love some feedback on, as i still feel that i didn't get it quite right.   
> also let me know who you think just appeared in the forests of mistral, (their identity will be revealed by the end of the fic).  
> as always, any constructive criticism, ideas and feedback on the story and characters is always appreciated.  
> the next few chapters will be covering the end of volume one.  
> till next time, catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	9. A Penny for your thoughts?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mercenary plans, while everyone else meets a robot.

Trust was a funny thing.

It was something everyone wanted from everyone else.

Some people trusted no one, some people only trusted close friends.

And some people were complete idiots and trusted everyone, from the charismatic mercenary with a gruff exterior, but a heart of gold. To the _poor_ wounded civilian that was dying in an alleyway.

That was the mistake of the kindly old folks that took him in.

They had been a great help in nursing him back to health these past few weeks, telling him about this new dangerous and exciting world he found himself in.

They told him about such awesome things as Aura, Grimm, hunters and what really got his blood pumped was _Semblances._ the idea of him having some kinda hidden power unique to him was a game changer.

Still if this world was to be a fresh start, then Issac gates and the couple that nursed him back to health need to die a _tragic death_ in a _home robbery gone wrong_.

But Felix would survive.

"Ah Issac, what are you doing up this late?"

The old fart that found him in the alley all those weeks ago walked in, carrying that stupid little bag of his that he carried to work every day.

"Waiting for you actually." Felix told him, "I want to have a _talk_ , but your wife wanted to see you in the kitchen first."

The old geezer nodded, set the stupid little bag next to the door like he always did and went off to the kitchen. Felix leaned back in the one seat chair he was sitting in and fiddled with his knife, the only one he had left from his world.

As expected, a scream came from the kitchen. In a casual, almost leisurely way Felix went to the small kitchen to find the old man _crying,_ over the broken body of his wife. 

It was fucking hilarious.

"What happened to Mrs Grey?' Felix asked voice full of 'concern' and 'shock.'

Yeah that was another weird thing about this world, _everyone_ was named after a colour for some reason, it was fucking weird.

"She's dead." The old fart said with deep sadness in his voice. "Who ever stabbed her and killed her will pay." He promised with rage in his voice.

What a fucking drama queen.

He was also wrong, Felix made sure to correct him.

"Actually, the cause of death was drowning." He drawled out , "The stab wounds were added in post death, for dramatic reasons."

"What?" oldie said in disbelief.

Now came one of Felix's favourite parts.

"She drowned." He informed the idiot, "Never saw it coming, she kicked and screamed, but I guess aura doesn't stop drowning, huh?"

"You killed her." Was oldie _still_ going on about that? Really?

"No, no, no. The _water_ killed her, haven't you been paying any attention? I just held her under as she thrashed and _screamed_."

The old man then gave one of those wordless screams of rage, the type fed and rebels would some times give when he killed their friends. old and ugly then charged, but Felix simply sidestepped him, and sliced open his throat using his knife.

The fact that his knife from his home universe could cut through aura was sure to give him an edge in this world.

The old man was now on his hands and knees, blood coming from his throat like a waterfall. 

Turning the old man onto his back Felix looked him right in the eye.

'You know i have to thank you, you and your wife have been a great help." Felix told the dying man, "And because of that, your death will be quick."

With that he stabbed the old man between the eyes ending him instantly.

See? He could be merciful.

Now to destroy all evidence of his existence, find some where to fix his armour, and then find out the worlds situation.

Then the _fun_ could begin.

* * *

"It's awfully busy today." Ruby observed, and Wash had to agree.

Even for a Friday afternoon, the Vale docks seemed to be awfully crowded.

"Yeah cause of the festival." Yang informed her sister.

"But that's mouths away!" Ruby cried, "Why would they set up for it now?"

"That's right, but the students from other academy's are arriving months in advance." Blake chipped in. "For example the Vacuo students are arriving today."

Blake then frowned, "I hope that it doesn't make the lines too long."

That was the reason for visiting vale today, Ruby's birthday was a week from now on Halloween. And with the week-long Halloween break started, it was decided to go shopping for presents today. Blake had agreed to run distraction by running Ruby to a book store, while Pang and Pyrrha got gifts and costumes. Of course when wash had overheard this, he kept it from his fellow loose lipped troopers.

"Yeah." ruby agreed, before turning to the other two, "What will you guy's be doing?" She asked.

"Just some shopping." ~~Carolina~~ Pyrrha answered.

Yang nodded along, "nothing major just some-" Yang stopped mid sentence as they all stopped in front of store, that had all of it's windows broken and police tape everywhere.

"What in Sam hill happened here?" Sarge asked, a question that Ruby repeated to out loud to the detective outside the store.

"Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week." The officer shook his head, "This place is turning into a jungle."

"That's terrible." Yang sighed and Caboose agreed. "Yeah! If they keep stealing dust, how can the tooth fairy fly?"

"They left all the money again."

Wait, what?

The detectives continued "Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?"

His partner looked annoyed "I don't know, an army?"

"You thinking the White Fang?" The first detective shared his theory

"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough." The other replied.

The white fang...... that was an organisation that Wash had mixed feelings about. On one hand the hand the noble goal of helping out all faunus kind. On the other they had now turned into a terrorist organisation that was making lifer harder for everyone. in a way, it reminded Wash of project freelancer. A group that also had started with a noble goal, but had descended into nothing more than a big experiment that dabbled in acts of terrorism.

He wondered if the leader of the white fang was anything like the Director.

The group was silent for a few moments, before Blake spoke up. 

"It's not the white fang." Everyone looked at her, "I mean the white fang didn't rob this dust shop, it was probably a criminal like Torchwick or something." Blake elaborated.

"Alright." Yang shrugged, "Makes sense." Pyrrha and Ruby nodded along, but Wash wasn't convinced.

"It _could_ be the white fang." Wash mused out-loud, "It could just be for some secret purpose."

"Do you want me to repeat that Wash?" Ruby whispered.

"No Ruby." Wash shook his head, "No need, I was just thinking out-loud. Besides a secret purpose, could just be to sell the dust at a higher price or something."

The group walked on, as Sarge gave his thoughts.

"Well you could build a mighty fine bomb from all that dust." He mused. "Kinda of like that bomb that sent us back in time."

Wash cringed at the mentioning of that. from the reports, Sarge's bomb only sent the sim troopers flying, but they all mistook it for time travel. 

Then as the group went off, a monkey tailed faunus ran past the group, and team SALN slammed right into their backs. Pushing them forward into yet another poor girl. Leaving everyone, excepting the red and blues, in a heap on the floor.

"Hey!"

"Watch it!"

"Scuse me."

"Sorry!"

"Get off me!"

With everyone up, Blake asked, "What are you doing?"

"Chasing that faunus rapscallion!" Weiss said animatedly before looking around, "Where did he go?!" 

"I guess he's gone then." Jaune shrugged, to which Weiss disagreed.

"No. We can catch him!" Weiss then turned to Nora, "I know we did not have the best start, but if you find the faunus, then I will buy you the best pancakes money can buy."

At this the lighting viking grinned like the lunatic Wash knew she was, followed by Caboose, who said "I also want pancakes!"

"Come on on Ren!" Nora squealed before bursting off at surprising speech followed by Weiss and and a reluctant Ren and Jaune.

With team SALN gone, team RPBY was left alone.

"That was weird." Yang said.

"It is? then I simply, _must_ note that." The girl on the floor replied.

Wait, what?

His eyes were not deceiving him, a teenaged girl was still down on the ground, smiling widely.

"Sal-u-ta-tions!" She waved from the ground.

"Um... hello." Ruby said awkwardly

"Are you... okay?" Yang asked.

"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking." The strange girl said.

"Do you... wanna get up?" Yang continued sounding as confused as Wash and the other felt.

The strange girl considered this "Yes." She jumped back onto her feet, causing the team to step back a little 

"My name is Penny!" Penny told them, "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."

"I'm Pyrrha."

"Blake."

'Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Blake hit her partner's side "Oh, I'm Yang."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny smiled brightly. At least she seemed kinda of sweet.

"You already said that." Blake pointed out.

"So I did!" unnervingly sweet.

"Well, we are very sorry for running into you." Pyrrha told her, and the group finally went back on their way.

"Take care, friend!" Ruby shouted back as they left.

"She was... _weird_..." Yang muttered.

"Oh i don't know." Sarge said thoughtfully, "For a robot she's more normal than Lopez."

Wash and Ruby did a spit take.

"Robot!?" wash yelled.

"What did you call me?"

Penny appeared directly in front of the group with a scary amount of speed.

"Oh, I'm really sorry," Yang apologised profoundly "I definitely didn't think you heard me!"

Penny shook her head "No, not you." She pushed through the group and leaned her head down towards Ruby " **You!** "

" _Me?_ I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh..." Ruby stuttered out.

"You called me 'friend'! Am I _really_ your **friend**?" Penny said with far too much hope in her voice,did she really not have any friends?

"Uuuum..."

Blake and Yang made "No!" Absolutely not!" Motions behind Ruby's back while Pyrrha gave a small nod.

"Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?" Ruby told her newest friend.

Penny looked overjoyed and laughed "Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"

He was suddenly glad Donut wasn't here.

Ruby groaned but big sister yang went for the rescue.

"So... what are you doing in Vale?"

"I'm here to fight in the tournament." Penny said proudly.

"Wait, _you're_ fighting in the tournament?" Yang said confused

"I'm combat ready!" Penny said with even more pride, honestly Sarges idea that she was a robot made sense, and it explained the weirdness.

Pyrrha stepped forward with her usual optimistic smile.

"Well, I think you will do great in the the tournament, after all appearances can be deceiving." 

Penny continued to smile, "Thank you for your support!"

"Now if can excuse us, we are going shopping." Yang bluntly told the probable robot.

"Ohhhh, shopping is a great activity for friends, can i come?"

"You can join me and Blake, we're going book shopping." Ruby offered before yang could say no.

"Sen-sational!"

As the group walked away, Wash noticed that Blake stole a glance at the robbed store and sighed.

* * *

On a nearby roof top, Felix observed.

He was looking at everything, but something had caught his eye, a group of weirdly dressed students. Or rather the 3 soldiers that were next to said students, in very _familiar_ full body power armour.

What do you fucking know, Agent Washington, and two of those idiot sim troopers were here as well. 

Did that mean they were also dead? 

Felix sure hopped so. He could just imagine what gory, violent and painful deaths they had suffered.

Furthermore, it looked like no one could see them, in fact those students they were with, just _phased_ right through them like ghosts, except for the small one with black hair. 

Interesting, everyone could interact with and see him, perhaps it was different for every person?

Regardless, if these idiots were here, he needed more weapons and his armour fixed. _Fast._

Focusing on the sim troopers and freelancers, he made a note to find out why hey wee with that particular group of students.

After all, when he got all of his stuff back, he was gong to get his revenge, and it would be _fun._

* * *

_Meanwhile, in the forests of Mistral_

After walking day and night, they were still pissed. 

Attack after attack, from some weird ass fucking monsters all night had been the norm for them. Ever sense they woke up on this, weird ass planet.

Most of their equipment wasn't working, damaged from their last battle with those idiots.

Still they were strong enough to beat the crap out of what ever came across their path which fine by them.

They just hoped they would find civilisation soon, otherwise they might just loose it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well i had fun with this chapter.  
> Essentially with Felix, who is one of my Favourite villains of all time.  
> We also meet Penny who is one of my favourite rwby characters. (Fourth in line, with Ozpin at third, Yang at second and Ruby at first.)  
> Also in regards to the betting pool on who exactly then new arrival, one of our trusty commentators nearly has the right idea. (I won't say which one.)  
> As always feel free to comment, I read all of them, and feel free to give suggestions for the overall story.  
> Next time you can look forward to a decision from Blake and a very Donut Esq scene from Ruby.  
> Till next time, catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	10. The Stray.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'It had been several hours sense they had left the docks, but Blake could not stop thinking about what had happened.'

Blake was lying on her bed with with a book, but he was not reading as her mind was elsewhere.

It had been several hours sense they had left the docks, but Blake could not stop thinking about what had happened.

She could not stop thinking about what the detective had said. 

_"You thinking the White Fang?"_

She knew academically that it was possible, but she simply couldn't believe it. the white fang simply had no reason to rob dust stores, they could get all they need from raiding the SDC. They wouldn't start robbing stores in vale. Case closed.

So why couldn't she stop thinking about it?

She needed proof. 

She needed proof to calm her mind from this idea that had been put in her head.

The only thing was, she had no idea where she would even start.

But her team might know.

When she had first started beacon, she believed that she would never have to tell anyone anything. That her past would be a secret, long forgotten. She never expected to be even considering telling her team about some of her past. But here she was, thinking about doing that exact thing.

Everyone on her team were good people, Pyrrha was a fantastic person, helping everyone who needed it.

Yang always spoke her mind and wasn't afraid to break some rules to do the right thing.

and Ruby had the same morality as a hero from an old fairy tale.

They were all _good people_ , so it wasn't out of reason that they would help her on her quest to prove that it wasn't the white fang behind the dust robberies.

Setting down her book, Blake took the time to look at her team, her partner was in the shower, probably using water that was as hot as the sun. Ruby was working on her robot which now had two half build legs and Pyrrha was reading in her own bed. 

Giving a small sigh, Blake looked into her knees like they held all the answers. 

Should she trust her team?

Would they react positively or negatively to her being a faunus?

What would they think about her past with the white fang?

But she knew the answers wouldn't come from looking into her knees or self reflection.

There was only one true way to find out.

Stealing herself for all and any possible reaction Blake prepared to get up and grab their attention, when Ruby moved back to reveal what part of her robot she had been working on.

It was a....switch. 

A switched placed in a very......... _familiar_ place.

As Blake watched in confusion Ruby took out a tub that was clearly labelled _'Jenkins's metal cleaner: making things so clean it doesn't seem physically possible.'_

Her team leader then put on some gloves, took some of the liquid and started rubbing the switch all over.

Blake could only watch in abject bug eye'd horror as Ruby's hand went up and down, and up and down, the very unfortunately place switch.

Blake wasn't the only one, Pyrrha had also noticed what ruby was doing and found it incredibly uncomfortable. 

"R- R- Ruby?" The spartan called for her partner.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?" Pyrrha asked with an embarrassed tone, as Ruby kept up with her task.

'Just working on cleaning the self maintenance switch." Ruby said casually. "If it's too dirty when I finish installing it, then it could short out the leg mortars."

"Oh, okay." Pyrrha said, as she tried to avert her eye's but like Blake couldn't.

"ᵈᵉᵃʳ ˡᵒʳᵈ ˢʰᵉ'ˢ ʷᵒʳˢᵉ ᵗʰᵃⁿ ᴰᵒⁿᵘᵗ."

Then ruby started to hum some tune. It reminded Blake of scene from ninjas of love where- 

No.

She was not going to think about that. Only some one with a very dirty mind would think about that now. No, Ruby was just doing some _harmless maintenance work._

Blake's face went red as ruby's hand started twisting. And now Blake was hoping for something, anything, to end this.

"RUBY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Yang yelled from where she stood, fresh from the shower.

That would do nicely.

Using her well developed parkour skills, Blake jumped out from her bed, swung on Ruby's and darted into the bathroom, all in one fluid motion.

"THAT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE TO ME!"

She would tell her teammates tomorrow, Blake decided.

* * *

Pyrrha never liked pumpkin Pete's cereal.

Sure she did that advert for it and she was on some of the boxes, but cereal was far too sweet for Pyrrha's tastes. 

So it was fortunate that at Beacon, they only did proper breakfast foods, hence her _lovely_ bacon and eggs.

As she ate her meal, the rest of her team arrived.

"Yang, I said it wasn't like that!"

"Ssuuuurrrreeeeee." Yang drawled out with a lazy smirk on her face. "I _believe_ you."

Ever sense the incident last night, Yang (once she had gotten over her initial anger), had been teasing Ruby, non stop for her accidental _handling_ of her robot.

The two sisters sat down on either side of Pyrrha with their own meals, Blake sat down next to her team leader.

Everyone sat in relative silence as they devoured their individual meals, Yang having bacon and mashed potatoes, Ruby had sausages and Blake some cooked fish.

Pyrrha finished first with Yang right behind her. 

The blond brawler then took a long good look at ruby and her meal, waiting for her sister to be in the middle of a big bite before speaking.

"Enjoying your...... _sausages_?" Yang asked as innocently as a serial killer, covered in the guts of his victims.

"Huh?" Ruby questioned blankly, causing Blake to lean over to explain the innuendo, making Ruby turn a bright red and chock on her meal. 

"Yang!"

"You should see your face." Yang cackled as Ruby continued to be as red as her cloak. Deciding to put her partner out her misery, Pyrrha asked an important question.

"Do you guy's have any plans for today?"

The other three paused.

"I was planning to do some maintenance on _C_ _rescent Rose_." Ruby answered, "Then I was going to do some costume shopping."

"I'm going to the gym, then i'm joining Ruby." yang chipped in. "What about you?"

"Me and Jaune where going to the movies." Pyrrha told them, "But I have no afternoon plans."

With her super natural sense for teasing, Yang said "Is this a date?" 

Pyrrha blushed, "No, just us hanging out as friends." 

She and Jaune had been flirting around each other sense they first met, but neither really knew how to move forward about it. Still if they got together, at least it wouldn't be as awkward as if they were on the same team.

Yang opened her mouth to presumably to give out some more teasing, but was cut off by Blake.

"I, actually would like to talk about something with you guy's." The normally quite girl spoke up.

"What is it Blake?" Ruby asked, voice filled with concern. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes." Came the quite answer. "If you can, I want you guy's to meet me at the vale docks at eight o'clock tonight, at the same dust shop as yesterday." Blake finished with a quite voice. "Now if you can excuse me, I have things to prepare." 

With that the bookish girl stood up and went out of the room.

"What was that about?" Yang asked the table rhetorically.

"I don't know." Pyrrha answered anyway, "But I think we should meet her there tonight."

Pyrrha then almost missed what Ruby said next.

"Wash could you-" The red reaper whispered

"ᴿᶦᵍʰᵗ, ᶦ'ᵐ ᵒⁿ ᶦᵗ, ᶦ'ˡˡ ˡᵒᵒᵏ ᵃᶠᵗᵉʳ ʰᵉʳ ᴿᵘᵇʸ."

* * *

It was unnervingly foggy when they all arrived at the robbed dust shop at eight on the dot. And the streets were utterly barren, devoid of life.

Yang thought that it really added to the tense atmosphere between the three girls.

"Here we are." pyrrha said simply, "But I don't see Blake." The spartan added with concern in her voice.

Yang rolled her eyes, "Well it is _exactly_ eight, we probably couldn't expect her to be here on the dot." Yang crossed her arms and looked around, peering into the fog as best she could. "Besides, with this fog we might just no be able to see her."

"Right...." came Pyrrha's reply, "I just hope Blake is fine." 

Yang nodded and placed herself on a wall, turning her head in time to see Ruby muttering something indecipherable.

Ah great, looks like she was doing that again.

"Anything to add Rubes?" She asked her sister rhetorically, causing the younger girls eyes to widen comically like she always did when Yang caught her talking to herself.

"Nothin- I-a, i mean I uh, think Blake is close by." The silver eyed girl spluttered out.

"ˢᵐᵒᵒᵗʰ." The wind whispered, which caused Yang to do a double take. Did the wind just say something?

Shaking her head Yang dismissed the thought as stupid, then addressed what Ruby had said.

"What makes you think that?" She asked, pushing herself upright, off the wall.

"Probably because i'm right behind you."

Yang, Pyrrha and Ruby all jumped. Blake stood there, her arms crossed, with some who looked sorta familiar, but Yang couldn't place him.

"Blake!" Came Ruby's cry of relief, the team leader then used her semblance to run over and give Blake a brief hug, which seemed to shock the bookish girl, before pulling away.

"Your alright! Is everything okay? Are you in trouble? You had us so worried! 'Cause you, just ran off! What happened?" Ruby rambled, faster than a Grimm after a wounded person.

Pyrrha put a hand on her partner's shoulder to calm her down.

"It is good to see you Blake, but you _did_ have us worried." The gladiator told Yang's partner.

"I can explain, but it- its-t is complicated." Blake told them.

Yang stepped forward, "Well what ever it is i'm sure we can handle it." She assured her partner in an easy going tone.

It couldn't be that bad right?

Blake shifted nervously, "Promise that you'll let me talk first? And hold all questions to the end?"

"Of course."

"Alright."

"Sure."

Blake then removed her bow, the same bow she wore all the time, even when sleeping, to reveal a set of cat ears.

"I am a cat faunus and former member of the white fang."

Wait, what?

When she saw her teammates, stumped reactions, Blake sighed and continued.

"I should start at the beginning, I was a member for most of my life. You could almost say I was born into it..." Blake paused as if in remembrance, "Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and the Faunus." Blake gave a small bitter chuckle "Of course, despite being promised equality, the Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as a voice of our people. And I was there." At this Blake started fiddling with her hair. "I was at the front of every rally. I took part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference. But I was just a youthful optimist." A dark shadow came onto Blake's face, "Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader, with a new way of thinking." Getting passionate, Blake continued. "Suddenly, our peaceful protests were being replaced with organised attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labour. And the worst part was, it was working. We were being treated like equals. But not out of respect... out of fear."

Blake finished her speech, and took several, calming breaths, before saying one last sentence.

"So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am: a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow." at this she looked at her bow and then at her team. 

The group stood in silence in the foggy alley, digesting the bombshell that had been dropped.

So Blake was a faunus and ex-white fang member. Yang took a few moments to continue to digest this.

"Cool, what else did ya need?" Yang told her partner.

Blake for her part seemed shocked. "That's it?" The cat faunus demanded, that's all you have to say!?"

"Yeah, you where ex-white fang, so what? Everyone has a past."

Blake seemed unable to formulate a response to that, opening and closing her mouth several times.

Pyrrha was the next to speak, "Yang's right, _everyone_ has their past. Besides you've left the white fang once they lost their way." Pyrrha put a hand on Blake's shoulder, "You are a good person Blake."

Ruby then shrugged, "Yep." She popped the 'p' "Their both right, we're _all_ behind you."

"N- none of you care about my past? Or that I lied to you?" The not-so-secret faunus asked nervously.

"Nope." Ruby replied, proceeding to give Blake another, longer hug. "I'm just glad, that my _friend_ is alright."

"So if I may interrupt, this _really_ heart warming moment, we should probably start getting to the docks." The stranger Blake had bought with her interrupted.

Yang had sorta forgotten about him, and from the others looks, they had as well.

"Right, sorry." Blake said sheepishly as she pried Ruby off her. "Everyone, this is Sun, Sun, this is my team."

"Hello." Pyrrha greeted. "You look familiar."

"He was the faunus being chased by SALN yesterday, for being a stowaway."

Sun chuckled, "Yeah they tried to catch me, but I got away." He paused for a moment, "But the ginger one nearly had me, she was _scary_."

Yang put the conversation on track, "What's this, about the docks?"

Blake suddenly got a serious edge on her face, "Well, with the dust robberies being blamed on the white fang, I was hoping to catch who ever was stealing all of the dust at the docks tonight, who are getting in a big delivery. Then we can catch who it is and prove that it wasn't the white fang."

"Yes!" Ruby exclaimed, "We could catch Torchwick!"

"We would be bringing dangerous criminals to justice."pyrrha smiled at the thought.

Yang shrugged, "Why not? I had no real plan tonight anyway."

Blake gave a proper smile. 

"Thanks guys." 

"Don't worry Blake." Yang told her with a mischievous smile. "After all this is the _pur_ fect opportunity to work together as a team."

The team looked in horror at the realisation that Yang, had a whole new way making puns.

Yang laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this was fun chapter to write.  
> I think I got everyone in character, and I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter.  
> On another note, now we are getting into the finale of this particular story, something that I find totally awesome.
> 
> As always, all comments, reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated as I read all of them, and reply when I can.
> 
> Tune in next time for the climatic battle at the docks involving everyone's Favourite criminal.
> 
> Also this story has been cross posted onto fanfiction.net, so feel free to check it out there, but here will remain the primary site for the story. 
> 
> Till next time, catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	11. Showdown By The Docks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our heroes battle Torchwick at the docks, and several interesting developments happen.

The atmosphere was quite. _Too_ quite. 

In Sarge's opinion the old cliche had never been more true than tonight.

"So, can we expect these guy's to show up soon, or what?" Sarge asked his fellow red.

"Soon, maybe." Ruby replied in whisper. 

Everyone was lying stomach down, on the roof of the warehouse waiting for any criminal or white fang activity.

"We could be here for a while." Washington informed Sarge, "Back in project freelancer, we often went on stake outs for hours, and sometimes days, before moving in."

"Sounds terrible." ruby shuttered.

Then Sun returned from where ever he had been. Sarge honestly didn't like the monkey faunus, his attitude reminded him far too much of Grif. 

"Did I miss anything?"

"That depends." Yang said with an eye roll, "Does the movement of the clouds count?"

Sun paused in thought, "Sure, why not?" He then held out some apples. "I stole some food for everyone."

Of course he did.

Dirtbag. He was just like Grif.

Good god he ~~missed~~ hated Grif.

"No thanks." declined Pyrrha, while Ruby shook her head no and Yang snatched an apple from his hands.

"Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?" Blake asked critically.

Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" He defended, causing Blake to deliver an angry glare at him. "Okay, too soon!" He said hastily.

Just as he said that, the wind picked all around them, and they all look up to see a Bullhead's searchlights flashing around for a landing spot. sarge saw it descend in the middle of the cargo containers and extend a ramp for a black hooded individual with a metallic fanged mask to come out of. Looks like it was the white fang after all.

"Oh no..."

Blake looked crestfallen. "You really didn't want it to be them, didn't you?" Ruby asked, ready to comfort her teammate and jump into action.

"No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." The cat girl replied, but then a new, but familiar voice was heard clearly from the docks.

"Hey! What's the holdup!?" The criminal Roman Torchwick emerged from the ramp, the damn dirtbag. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

"This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that." Blake said with a distant, but worried voice. she then stood up and unsheathed the katana of Gambol Shroud before walking off the edge of the roof, causing Ruby and Washington to follow her.

"Blake, what are you doing?!" The red leader tugged on her sleeve, but Wash clearly knew what was going on. "Oh no....."

The ex-terrorist then jumped gracefully from the roof, undoubtedly to see what was going on with her former allegiances. 

"We have to go after her." Yang declared, causing everyone to get up from the floor of the roof.

"After who?" Penny asked.

The sudden appearance of the robotic girl threw everyone, causing them all to jump. And in the case of Ruby and Wash, to physically slip and fall off the roof.

"I'm alright!" The scythe wielder declared a moment later from ground level. With that everyone turned back to Penny and her sudden appearance.

"Penny....what are you doing here?" Pyrrha asked.

"I was following social conventions and 'hanging out' with my friends." Penny explained with her cheerful attitude. "In this case my friends, being you guys."

No one could formulate a response to that, so Sarge came up with one of his own.

"That...." He began, "Is not how hanging out works lil' lady."

"Oh?" Penny did the impossible and turned her head over to face where he was standing. "How does it work then, mister invisible man?"

Sarge froze, "You can hear me?"

"Of course, my ears can pick up noise from up to a mile away, _I_ am a very good listener." Penny told Sarge, much to the confusion of the other three people with physical bodies on the roof.

"I am also a very good listener." Caboose told the robot girl, "It is because I am very quite."

"Your voice is different. Are you a different person?"

"No! I am not a 'different person', I am Caboose!" The blue sim trooper 'corrected' Penny.

It was at this point Yang interrupted the conversation, that she could only hear half of. 

"Yeaaaahhhh. If you can excuse us, we have to go and help Blake and Ruby." Yang paused, "Good luck with the raging insanity."

"Ruby is in trouble?" Penny asked in concern, "I can help, as I, am combat ready!"

At the declaration Her backpack opened up, and from its dark depths comes a single sword that extended and multiplied into several blades hovering over Penny's back. 

You didn't see that every day.

* * *

Ruby was lucky that activating her aura was second nature to her at this point. It had meant that her fall from the roof was just a minor annoyance that drained some aura.

"I'm alright!" She called up to her friends, before turning to Wash. "Was that Penny?" She asked the freelancer.

"I think so, but we can deal with that later, let's go help Blake." He told her.

"Right." Was all Ruby said before running off, she really hoped Blake hadn't gotten into _too_ much trouble in the last two minutes.

Unfortunately Ruby's fears were made true as she arrived just in time to see Torchwick fire his cane at Blake's feet causing a huge explosion. Her friend seemed dazed but relatively unhurt on the ground, but she quickly rolled and ran out of the way of torchwick's continued attacks, flaming missiles destroying cargo behind her as she flipped away, this gave Ruby the opportunity to charge into battle, extending Crescent Rose into scythe form and swinging it towards the criminal catching him off guard and sending him flying into one of the assembled white fang members.

"Blake are you okay?!" Ruby called out, causing the faunus girl to come out from behind one of the containers, weapons drawn, and take position besides ruby as more white fang members emerged from the bullheads.

"I'm fine ruby." Blake told her, as Wash ran up to them, "The others are on their way." He reported.

At this point torchwick had gotten up and was now facing them.

"Well, hello, Red!" The master criminal said condescendingly. "Isn't it past your bedtime?" 

Before either girl could get a word out, he fired his cane right between them, causing the two girls to scatter and then charge at the bad guy's. Ruby went right for Torchwick, while Blake attacked the white fang.

Ruby swung Crescent Rose towards him, which he simply side stepped, she then swung it horizontally, causing him to duck under, he then fired his cane directly at her sending a massive fireball at Ruby, causing an explosion that sent Ruby flying back, dazing the young team leader, and costing her a considerable amount of aura.

"Ouch...." Was all Ruby said as she slowly got up onto one knee.

"That looks like it hurt red." Torchwick taunted, and he then gave off a short evil laugh.

"Not as much as this is gonna hurt!" Yang yelled, as she and the others arrived on scene, Yang sending a shotgun blast in Torchwick's direction, which the criminal barely dodged. 

"Where. Are. All. These. Kids. Coming. From!?" The criminal shouted in frustration, before having to duck, dodge and weave under Yang's furious assault. Turning her head, Ruby could also see that Pyrrha and Sun had joined Blake in taking out the dozen or so white fang members. Penny was also engaging the bullheads.

Wait, What?

Ruby's eyes were not deceiving her, Penny was telepathically commanding several swords to combat three bullheads that had come from the sky. She watched as Penny formed a shield and launched two of her swords into the wall behind her, which in turn pulled their wielder back with their strings. Several of her swords swirled around her again, she seemed to command them to open their points and build up a large glowing ball of green light. With a punching action, several of the bright lasers cracked the pavement as they fired at the transports and slice each one in half, causing several of the White Fang members inside to fall to the ground and letting Ruby watch as Bullheads fall in pieces behind her.

"That.....is one hell of a semblance." Wash observed from beside her, and Ruby had to agree.

The destruction of the bullheads had drawn everyone's attention, including Yang's, which allowed Torchwick to start running away from the blonde brawler, but not before sending out one last shot with his gun-cane. ''Ruby! Watch out!" Several people cried out at once, as Torchwick made his retreat. His last shot hitting the crane's supports, sending the container it had right to where Ruby was resting on one knee.

But Ruby was too slow to move, Washington acting on instinct, moved to protect her and push her out of the way. Then something _weird_ happened.

Instead of being crushed into a red splat on the ground, the container merely bounced off Ruby and Wash was no where to be seen.

"Huh?" Ruby questioned, as she noticed something weirder, just millimetres off her skin, there was a semi-transparent, _glowing_ black armour with yellow accents.

 _("What happened?") A_ voice said inside her head. A very familiar voice.

"Wash?" Ruby questioned out loud, as she got up to see everyone looking at her confusedly. Evidently everyone else could see the glowing armour.

 _"(This is....weird?" )_ Washington said, inside her head(?) _"(I don't know whats happening, am I..... inside your head?" )_ Wash asked, as confused as she was.

But Ruby was also concerned with the armour, could it be Wash's semblance? 

_("That sorta makes sense." )_ Wash told her, seemingly hearing her thoughts. ( _"B_ _ut what does it do?" )_

While everyone was distracted with the sudden appearance of the glowing armour on Ruby, a desperate white fang member lifted up his rocket launcher and fired it at the confused team leader. But rather than taking out Ruby, or even causing her to stumble, instead the missile bounced harmlessly off Ruby/Wash and was diverted else where. Causing Sun to knock out the fang member.

_"(Huh, neat.")_

"Wash, could you, uh, leave my head?" Ruby mumbled, "Everyone is staring."

 _("Okay, right. let me try-") W_ ith that sentence, Ruby had another weird feeling and Wash suddenly emerged from her and collapsed on the floor, and the glowing armour faded away.

Everyone was silent as Yang stepped towards her sister. "Ruby....." She started uncertainly, "What....was that?"

"I don't know." Was all she could say back.

Any further conversation was halted when the police arrived. Professor Goodwitch with them.

* * *

Elsewhere, Felix had watched the whole incident from start to finish through the lens of a sniper rifle, having recently gotten his armour repaired and _borrowing_ some weapons.

"Interesting." Was all he commented, as he turned his attention the the only bullhead that had remained undamaged, carrying that Torchwick dude with it.

Looks like he had found himself some allies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was probably my favourite chapter to write yet. I always liked the climax of volume one, so I hope my version of it did some justice.
> 
> It should be noted that the idea of Penny interacting with the red and blues was not planned, but something that creeped up on me where writing this chapter. Although she can only hear the red and blues, not see them.
> 
> The idea of Ruby and Wash temporarily combining to save her life, was something planned from the start, and I hope that it came across clearly in the chapter.  
> The brackets over italics is meant to show him talking inside of Ruby's head, which works similarly as Oscar and Ozpin talk to each other in volume 4 and 5.
> 
> Another fun fact is that one of the first things I did when constructing this crossover, was to figure out what each of the reds and blues semblances would be. Like Wash summoning a protective armour. The only character I couldn't think of a semblance for was Sarge, so if anyone has any ideas on what his semblance would be, please feel free to comment.
> 
> As always, all reviews, comments and constructive criticism is appreciated.  
> Next time will be a sort of epilogue/post credit scene/sequel hook. So stay tuned for that.  
> Till next time, catch ya'll on the flip flop.


	12. Old Friends, New Problems.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Familiar faces return, and everything changes.

At several millennia old, very few things surprised Ozpin. 

Sure they still happened, mostly things like a powerful huntsman being killed by a beowolf or a team of students stopping a Goliath.

But it has been centuries sense Ozpin had been true caught off guard and surprised.

Which made this particular occasion all the more memorable.

For the fiftieth time this night, the footage on the screen played in front of him. 

Miss Rose was on one knee, having been taken out out the fight by one of _her_ pawns, in this case an enterprising criminal named Roman Torchwick. A former Beacon student that had dropped out in his third year following the deaths of the rest of his team in a mission gone wrong. Looking at him years later, Ozpin could still see some traces, of the smart-mouthed boy that had now _wasted_ his potential, following that fateful mission. Torchwick fired a shot from his weapon, the same from his school days, and it hit the supports of a crane, sending the cargo it held into free-fall over Miss Rose.

In most cases this would have resulted in the death of Miss Rose, baring the rescue from one of her teammates. But instead, something _unexpected_ happened.

Miss Rose stumbled to the side like she was being pushed, and then she was enveloped in an glowing armour that deflected the container. It would then proceed to deflect a missile sent by a desperate member of the white fang. 

At this Ozpin paused the footage and enhanced it on young Miss Rose.

She was clearly visible under the armour, which reminded him of the atlas military. But this was not one of James' projects. Nor was this any other thing to do with technology.

No, this was quiet clearly a semblance. But not Miss Rose's own semblance. 

This seemed to be some form of secondary semblance.

An impossibility.

Of course, there had been rumours of people with more than one semblance for as long as the concept itself was around. But they were just that. rumours. Stories told between drunks and the boastful. Often either being lies, mistakes made in the dark, or more rarely, one of the maidens showing off their power.

But this was none of those.

This was a clear case of a secondary semblance being developed. Something unheard of, even in stories of silver eyed warriors.

Undoubtedly, _her_ pawn would report this to _her_ , either directly or threw another pawn.

Ruby Rose, the girl with silver eyes, seemingly had a secondary semblance.

Ozpin would have to research this, consult all of his contacts related to Miss Rose and do a _lot_ of reading on fairy tales.

It is possible that this development could prove advantageous. But it would have to be closely monitored. 

He would start tomorrow where team RPBY would be interrogated, but until then he had reports from mistral of unusual activity in one of the forests. 

This looked like a job for a certain Qrow.......

* * *

Qrow would be lying if he said going to a bar was a rare occurrence for him.

But after a full day of searching, for what ever was messing with the Grimm of mistral with no luck. Qrow was fairly certain he deserved a drink with a big kick.

As such, he was now sitting on stool at the end of the counter, nursing his drink.

Oz had sent him out hear to investigate reports of massive Grimm activity in the nearby forest, but when he finally arrived here he was met with a forest that was absent of Grimm, like some kinda huntsman, had torn through all the Grimm, but while trees had a great amount of damage done to them, there were no huntsman anywhere near this place.

As Qrow took a _long_ sip from his drink, his shitty semblance must've kick in, as his day was made worse when some Atlas specialist entered the bar.

Whoever they were, they seemed to be in very bad mood. Muttering darkly to himself as they took the only remaining seat which happened to be right beside Qrow.

Wonderful.

He went for another sip of his drink only to find it disappointingly empty. Seeing this, the bartender went over and filled it up, then the Atlas operative spoke up.

"Hey" Said a female voice he had heard somewhere before. "Get me something, with a real _kick_ to it." The operative told the bartender, who nodded and went about mixing drinks.

Deciding to take the incentive, Qrow started a conversation with her.

"Rough day?" He asked to start the conversation. Causing his new 'friend' to give a small bitter chuckle.

"Rough day? Try rough _week_ pal." She told him as the bartender delivered a drink to her hand. 

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No." Came the short, tense reply.

"Right. Right...." Qrow looked for another angle. "You apart of the Atlas special forces?" Qrow guessed, gesturing at her black armour.

To his surprise she gave a longer, more genuine laugh, before turning to Qrow, "Why is is it that every idiot, that sees my armour assumes i'm special forces?" She asked him rhetorically. 

She then continued, "you know what? Fuck it, I might as well vent about my week." The lady in black armour took a beep breath. 

"Well first, my boyfriend screws up my mission, causing my pelican to crash, then when I come to, i'm captured by this dickhead who holds onto me until an E.M.P goes off, _then_ when I come to i'm alone in a forest with nothing but my fucking A.I, then it takes me _three days_ to fight my way through a horde of some ugly ass monsters before reaching this shitty town." She took several deep breaths before finishing, "So you know, pretty shitty week."

Qrow took several minutes to digest this information before going forward.

So it seems she's an atlas operative that was captured after a failed mission but was abandoned in the Mistral woods by the kidnapper for unknown reasons. Then when she woke up, she fought her way through a forest of Grimm to reach this town.

She must have one hell of semblance to fight through a forest of Grimm without weapons.

"Well that sounds like it sucked." He then made a quick decision. "The names Qrow, and I can help with this _situation_ of yours."

"Huh. Well my name is Tex." The lady in black armour told him, then her voice deepened and her body language changed.

 **"And _I_ am O'Malley." S**he said with voice that was, _far_ too deep to be natural. **"Now where the _hell_ are we?"**

* * *

Elsewhere, far from Mistral, in a warehouse in Vale.

Roman Torchwick was nursing his wounded pride and wondering exactly how to make up for this blunder to his boss.

"How very disappointing, Roman."

Speak of the devil.

Roman turned around to see Hinder and her her two cronies, (Jade and Silver or something stupid like that) and he gave a hearty laugh.

"Whoa! Hehe... I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon..." He trailed off

"We were expecting... _more_ from you." His boss told him.

Deflecting the blame he thought of a suitable scape goat. "Hey! You were the ones who suggested working, with those stupid mutts from the White Fang." He told the raven haired woman.

Cinder chuckled darkly "And you will continue to do so." She then summoned a fireball in her hand and stepped out of the darkness with her two stooges. "We have _big_ plans for you, Roman. All we ask is... a little cooperation."

"You might need _more_ than a little cooperation." A new voice called out.

Everyone turned to see a new player, a man in full body armour that was steel with an orange trim around it.

"What do you mean by that?" Cinder asked, as she signalled for her two minions to stand down behind her.

"Well, yea see. I saw his little performance down at the docks." The new guy chuckled, "Let me tell you _I_ was not impressed. _But_ it made me realise that _we_ have a common enemy."

At this Roman cut in, "You mean those annoying brats?" He questioned. 

"Not exactly, ya see those 'brats' as you called them? They have some very _annoying_ and very _powerful_ friends." The guy in armour paused. "And these _friends_ will ruin your entire operation, unless _I_ help you. For the right price of course."

Torchwick snorted, "Yeah, sorry buddy, but you will have to do better than-" Cinder raised her arm to silence him.

The rude bitch.

"I am, intrigued." Cinder told the mercenary, her fire ball getting bigger. "Do you have a name?"

"The name's Felix." The shadows gave the appearance of a shark like grin on his helmet. "And I have the feeling that _this_ , is the start of a very _productive_ alliance. 

* * *

Meanwhile, farther still from that warehouse, but still in vale, a white flash appeared and a man was left lying on the ground.

Well, not exactly a man.

"Booyah!" The ghost in glowing transparent white armour yelled out, as he popped up from the ground, "What did I tell you Washington? Motherfucking ghost!"

The ghost then made several observations at once. He was no longer in the compound, Wash and the Meta were no where to be found and no one that was walking in the street was acknowledging his presence.

"What. The fuck." Church said slowly. "Is this bullshit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus this story comes to a close. Let me tell ya'll i had a blast writing this.
> 
> The Ozpin scene is there mostly to show his reaction to previous events.
> 
> The idea of Tex and Qrow meeting at a bar, was one of the first things I had envisioned for this crossover. And to add some clarity, this is the original Tex, the one from blood gulch and project freelancer. And yes she has Omega with her. 
> 
> Felix joining up with the criminals was also something I envisioned from the start, mostly to set up his place for the sequel.
> 
> And finally, Alpha!Church has joined this crossover. He does not have a physical body and is like the blues and red with Ruby.
> 
> Honestly, getting this fanfiction done has been awesome and I am shocked with the support I've gotten from chapter one, which along with chapter two has been slightly reworked to be more readable.  
> Next I will be moving on to a sequel; covering volume 2 which is still my favourite of the rwby volumes and where I've had most of my ideas for this crossover.
> 
> I would like to thank everyone who has read this story, with extra thanks to those who commented, without them I would have had no idea on how to properly do this story.
> 
> As always, I encourage all and any comments, reviews and constructive criticisms. And please let me know what you think of the story, as I will read all comments, no matter how late to the party they are.
> 
> Till next time everyone. It's been fun, catch ya'll on the flip flop.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah this is just an idea i've had in my head for a while now, so i figured why not give it a shot? This is basicly my first serious attempt at fanfiction, so all any constructive critisisim is appreciated. Thanks for reading dudes.


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